Prime Minister Tony Abbott has agreed to provide air transport support. They have vowed that no troops will be involved.

Like so many overseas events in this smaller worlds, that tragically involve or affect Australia, the government has said Australian citizens may be in Iraq fighting with the extremist band of thugs called ISIL.

President Obama has called on the Iraq government to mend its internal differences and take the lead in the defeat of the extremists, because the west can't always do it for them.

America paid the price for backing a corrupt South Vietnamese government in the 1960s. It has also suffered from propping up a faction-riddled and largely anarchistic Iraqi regime after deposing Saddam Hussein. We have paid a similar price for dealing with an equally faction-riddled and at times hostile government in Afghanistan.

As always, the years of massive military and financial support of a new and democratic order crumbles once the West withdraws its troops.

Saving desperate civilians trapped on a mountain in Iraq is one thing, but, propping up a government that seems incapable of helping itself, is another issue entirely.

A GOVERNMENT in trouble always attempts to divert attention away from itself by blaming external forces. The Western Australian government continues to brand Tasmania as an unworthy beneficiary of GST revenue.

WA has budget problems of its own making, enjoys massive Commonwealth outlays on its six military bases and road infrastructure, which Tasmania does not enjoy, and is blessed with huge mineral wealth, no thanks to the Barnett government.

If Premier Colin Barnett is so outraged by the current system he should have the courage to ask Western Australians if they want to secede from the Commonwealth.