NZ should not march into Isis minefield

IN THIS centennial year of the Anzac landings during WWI let's do something truly remarkable to honour the war dead - let's not go to war.

Prime Minister John Key's call to arms in Iraq over Isis is wrong. Even sending 40-100 troops in non-combatant roles is too much. We can avoid this commitment, and we should.

Isis is a death cult. Its sadistic propaganda is as much a reflection on Islam as the Lord's Resistance Army or the IRA are relevant to Christianity. And it will eventually implode. But the most effective means of fighting it is within the Middle East. For this to happen Middle East countries will have to be seen to be siding with the West - anathema to many because of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The perils of not solving that conflict are again coming home to roost.

Jordan seems to have been stirred into strident action by the death of pilot Moa'ath al-Kassasbeh, despite the increase in savagery from Isis being designed to send a strong message to Muslim countries participating in the international coalition. But Jordan should be at the forefront of this fight, as should Saudi and the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey.

The decision to commit New Zealand resources again to conflict in Iraq should have gone before Parliament rather than just Cabinet.

In the long term, money would be better spent helping these countries improve the standard of living of their citizenry, cutting off the supply of recruits from populations suffering unemployment, poor infrastructure and few socio-economic opportunities.

We are walking into a minefield, which needs a diplomatic response as much as military. If we need reminding of that, the killing of Moa'ath al-Kassasbeh in Ragga happened just a few hundred metres from a spot near the Euphrates River where 30 women were killed in a previous coalition airstrike.