'One of the things that so disappoints me about the election result is that I am the standard bearer for values and ideals which matter and which are important and … as the leader of the Coalition, millions and millions of people invest their hopes in me and it's very important that I don't let them down.

''When I am unfairly attacked, I've got to respond and I've got to respond in a tough way.''

http://www.smh.com.au/national/soldiers-thrown-to-wolves-says-abbott-20101012-16ht2.html

Gus: unfairly attacked? Bearer of values and ideals? Tony shoots himself in the foot, chases his own tail, tells porkies, blames someone else for his predicament... Great catholic values...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has taken a swipe at Tony Abbott, saying it appears the Opposition Leader does not understand how the military justice system works.

The rebuke follows Mr Abbott's intervention into the case of three Australian soldiers charged over the deaths of six civilians in Afghanistan last year.

Mr Abbott says he suspects there has been a deep failure by the Government to provide the soldiers with the defence they are entitled to and that people fear the soldiers have been stabbed in the back by the Government.

Ms Gillard says Mr Abbott should get the facts first before talking about such cases publicly.

She says it is the military's job to offer legal assistance, not the Government's.

"Mr Abbott seems to believe that the Government can make representations in this process; that is simply not true, and anyone who had bothered to get themselves briefed as to the facts would have known that wasn't true," she said.

"Now, national security - it doesn't get any more important than that - I would say to Mr Abbott, is an area where he's got the clearest of all obligations to inform himself of the facts before he speaks."

The Australia Defence Association (ADA) says the Opposition Leader's comments are unhelpful and that it has told the Liberal Party so.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/13/3037649.htm?section=justin

Gus: this, of course, confirms that Tony is an opportunistic idiot...

From Michelle Grattan —SMH

TONY Abbott must have known the military would never grant his wish to be ''embedded'' with Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. Good heavens, if his political minders can't keep him out of harm's way, what commander would take on protecting him from real bullets?

Wanting to get close to the action was very Tony. Crazy brave or just crazy. Some of his colleagues worry the shoot-from-the-hip/lip Abbott of the old days is back, whether it's testing a rifle (no wonder his office suppressed the official Defence pictures), or landing in a contretemps with Julia Gillard about not being part of her trip to the war zone.

Even putting aside those lapses, there are serious questions about the opposition's changing positions on the detail of the Afghanistan commitment, and also its further stoking the furore about the charging of Australian soldiers over Afghan civilian deaths.

Defence policy might not be Abbott's specialty - even so, there is no excuse for the opposition being inconsistent and poorly briefed on so vital an issue.

In an address to the Lowy Institute in April, Abbott advocated a much bigger role for Australian troops. His rhetoric was strong. ''If satisfied that the role made strategic sense and was compatible with our other military commitments, a Coalition government would be prepared to consider doing more,'' he declared.

This wasn't some throwaway comment - it was Abbott's major speech on defence policy. The only qualification is that it was in the context of the imminent Dutch withdrawal, which Abbott saw as an opportunity for Australia to play a bigger part.

By the time of the election campaign, he'd retreated, content to keep Afghanistan well in the background. There were no votes in arguing that we should get into this war more deeply.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/coalitions-charge-ahead-on-afghanistan-ends-in-abject-retreat-20101014-16lq4.html

Gus: this, of course, confirms that Tony is an opportunistic idiot...