Why this spite and ludicrous tut-tutting of Wyatt Roy?
Why has the Foreign Minister joined Labor in attacking Roy, a hope-to-be journalist, for checking out our Peshmerga allies in the fight against the Islamic State?
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has blasted former colleague Wyatt Roy as “irresponsible” for travelling to the high-risk frontline of the conflict between Islamic State and Kurdish forces in Iraq, saying he did so “in defiance of government advice”.
Wow. In "defiance of government advice"? Is there a greater crime?
Mr Roy, a former frontbencher who lost his Queensland seat at the July 2 election, said ... he had been at a Peshmerga outpost on the frontline “for no more than a minute when 15 Daesh fighters kicked off a series of 50-calibre Dushka and RPG rounds from less than a kilometre away”...“This was not quite what I’d had in mind when I visited the Kurdistan region of Iraq this week, as part of an extended trip to countries that I have an interest in,” Mr Roy said. “I was there to see a mate, get a feel for the environment, and talk to policymakers and industry leaders about their experience.”
Why not? Do we hector George Orwell for not just checking out the Spanish Civil War but fighting in it? Do we monster war correspondents who visit the front lines? Wouldn't it be good if more Australians learned - through the efforts of people like Wyatt Roy - who our allies really are in this savage and epoch-defining battle against the Islamic State?
Yet Julie Bishop joins the Twitter pack and Labor in turning feral on Roy:
Ms Bishop said Australia had banned travel to Mosul and official advice was “do not to travel” to Iraq.
"Advice" is a not a law. Advice is often what the Government issues just to cover its backside. I once ignored advice not to travel to Bali, and did so because I thought it wrong to give in to terrorists and make Bali suffer.
“It is irresponsible of Wyatt Roy to travel to the frontline of the conflict between ISIL and Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, in a region regarded as very high risk,” she said. “He has placed himself at risk of physical harm and capture, and acted in defiance of government advice.“Mr Roy did not seek nor did he receive assistance from the Australian government for his travel to Iraq. The government does not endorse or approve of Mr Roy’s actions, and strongly urges other Australians to follow the official advice of ‘Do not travel to Iraq’.
If Roy chooses to put himself in harm's way, that's his business. Thousands of Australians every day make the same kind of decisions with getting this scolding - riding motorbikes, climbing trees, trekking up steep mountains, handling snakes and crocodiles, driving too fast, riding horses, boxing and cycling in heavy traffic.
If Roy had got hurt and then asked for our help in evacuating him, then, fine, give him a lecture and the bill for his care. If he had visited the Islamic State rather than the Kurds, then let me kick him first. But this nannying is pathetic. By all means warn others of the danger, as Roy did himself, and point out that the Government won't pay for any ambulance.
But let's not start making a crime of intrepid fact-finding in a good cause. And let's drop the childish insults
“This is a very unwise and dangerous act for a former LNP member of parliament, who should be expected to know better,” the opposition’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said. “War zones are not places for people to act out their boyhood fantasies.”
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