Verbal pratfall not a sign of deeper problems with deployment and safety of our troops

OUR defence minister has been humiliated on TV. But this is one of those times when it would be dangerous to invest too much into a gotcha-question failure.

OPINION: Kevin Andrews has been humiliated and quickly made a national symbol of chagrin. But this is one of those times when it would be dangerous to invest too much into a gotcha-question failure.

We should reject any notion the Andrews tumble on national television pointed to deeper, important problems in our Defence forces.

Defence Minister Andrews last night couldn’t name the head of the Islamic State. He is the minister in charge of our biggest troop deployment since Afghanistan but couldn’t identify the enemy.

It is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — or simply Baghdadi to most Western observers.

Many Australians would be unable to name him but only one Australian is a minister today sending off 330 Australian troops to join units already in Iraq helping fight Baghdadi’s Islamic State “death cult”.

But we should step back a pace.

Leigh Sales had Andrews on the back foot.

Ever since Kim Beazley confused Karl Rove with Rove McManus it’s been standard procedure to interpret such verbal pratfalls as a failure of competence, particularly when they are accompanied, as we saw last night on ABC’s 7.30, by desperate attempts to deny being caught out.

There is a place for noting these embarrassments, not least because politicians make much of them when it suits. But in this case, and most others, it is merely an isolated memory crash, unlikely to be repeated.

Mr Andrews’ moment of blankness doesn’t mean our Defence structure and policy implementation are flawed or based on ignorance. The people actually running the show know exactly what they are doing and who they want to eliminate on the battlefield.

It would be wrong for the Andrews stumble to be translated into an indictment of the mechanics of the plan which will put Australian soldiers at risk. That would be totally incorrect, and could harm morale.

Kevin Andrews will be squirming for a short while, but it is of greater importance to realise our troops are being looked after in the long term by competent leaders.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is widely thought of as the leader of IS.