Women and children held in Syrian detention camps force Australia to choose between rhetoric and the rule of law.

Snared in the war-ripped Levant are 34 Australian mums and their kids. Back between 2012 and 2019, as impressionable youngsters, they’d fallen in love with men seduced by the dream of fighting for the Caliphate, the political Islamic state.  It sounded like utopia.

Now those women are widows, single mothers in a dystopian nightmare, desperate Australians trying to return home. That seems reasonable if they’re considering their children’s future.

Government people stress the stranded ISIS Brides – as tagged by the tabloids – will get no special help - aka ‘hardworking taxpayers’ money’, to make the 14,000 km journey. That should appease the electorate’s worthies.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered homespun wisdom, righteously reminding of consequences: “My mother would have said: ‘If you make your bed, you lie in it’.

“These are people who went overseas supporting the Islamic State and went there to provide support for people who basically want a Caliphate.”

Yes, they did – and some may still nurture that ambition. Surveillance, probation and other legal safeguards along with the sun, surf and ‘she’ll be right’ ethos would eventually erase their hardlines.

At some point the luckless made lousy choices – an investment, a partner, a purchase, whatever. If we couldn’t blame the blindness of ambition, it was the blinker of applause, alcohol, a rush of uncheckable hormones – a right turn when it should have been left.

Who hasn’t done the same?

The Catholic PM knows compassion can be cathartic, but the focus groups say voters want toughness, so enter Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.  He demands the government stop the women from returning to Australia, seemingly forgetting that in 2019 his Protestant boss Scott Morrison helped repatriate eight orphans and ISIS brides. A flash of decency.

How did the stranded women get in this mess?  Their errors “seemed like a good idea at the time.”

That was the line used in 1983 by then Attorney General Gareth Evans who wanted the RAAF to  spy on contested construction work at Tasmania’s Franklin Dam. Outrage erupted. If the ‘streaker’s defence’ was good enough for an AG, it should serve for all in an egalitarian society.

Fortunate fellows these vengeful finger-waggers, never blessed with a turbulent daughter determined to make her bed with a handsome, bearded young man wanting to fight abroad. So unlike the other lads seeking her favours with tickets for the footy as a prezzie.

At that carefree stage when they could have been giggling in campus tearooms trying to decide between arts and science, the rebels with-causes chose adventure, plugging their ears against the pleas of parents.

Off to the Middle East with their new beaus, soon to be disemboweled for their beliefs.

Everything went bad in a rush – from girls to wives to widows. Dreadful in Australia when supported by family and friends, but in an alien culture and lifestyle, it would have been hell.

Some of the grievers may still plot the brutal regime’s recovery but most have been too busy stressing with the uncertainties.

Who has never been there, praying for a better world and wanting to take part, knowing you’re right and everyone else is wrong? The certitude of adolescence.

If not, then you’re among the charmed-life Orpheans. You’ll be scar-free, though never touched by the spirit of hope the damaged brides experienced, so briefly.

Though it’s led many of us astray, through good fortune and watchfulness of the caring we’ve got to the promised places. Now we’re here best lock the door. From personal experiences we know that the desperate can be determined.

The philosophy of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is abhorrent; it fouls the finest principles of Islam.

Most here in Indonesia are fasting and their cheery greetings to the Australian kafir (unbeliever) queuing at 6pm for a breakfast are Maaf Lahir dan Batin (I seek forgiveness for my wrongdoings.)

Pauline Hanson, who reckons the world’s worst are Muslims, might want to meet our friends and neighbours before opening her mouth again – for a feed, of course, which they’ll share.  It’s the culture – mine is yours.

If the ISIS ladies ever make it to their birthplace still chanting the slogans of their late lovers, it seems right they should be prosecuted for supporting a terror group, as the government has promised.

But we have Rule of Law that oftentimes trumps raw rhetoric. Suppose they’re acquitted and freed with their damaged daughters and sons into the community, seeking help?

Apart from saucepans and other practicalities, they’re going to need wrap-around  mental health care, delivered without judgment – and probably for years. Whatever they need they must get.  As the Wolfe Brothers sing: “I am, you are, we are, Australians.”

We should pop round with a plate, but the principles in the fridge have turned bad, like the one about loving neighbours. The fear virus is abroad and we can’t even find the masks. Maybe we could give them the benefit of doubt, but that might stir the gossips.

Better install CCTV, then high-five the cops and longtime locals. Thanks to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a Catholic, for telling us about GOD (the Good Old Days):

“Our character is essentially Anglo-Celtic and Judeo-Christian. That’s what has made our country attractive to migrants, and we should keep it that way.”

Be cautioned returnees, the wide brown land you fled is not the one you’ll tread today. The welcome mat was burned in bushfires years ago along with the holy books.

Replacements aren’t covered by emergency grants.