TONY Abbott has given a strong commitment to keeping Australian troops in Afghanistan - possibly beyond 2014 - during a surprise visit to the army base at Tarin Kowt.

The Opposition Leader has also delivered a backhander to the Greens and other critics of Australia’s engagement in the fledgling democracy, saying that troops on the ground did not like when casualties are "politicised".

Just days after Prime Minister Julia Gillard paid a visit to the multi-national base, Mr Abbott donned the heavy gear used by the bomb disposal squad as he was given a personal demonstration of the high risk role played by Australian troops.

While morale has been tested at the camp following the deaths of three Australian soldiers - the result of a rogue Afghani soldier - Mr Abbott said the feedback from the troops showed no lessening of resolve.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/abbotts-surprise-visit-to-afghanistan/story-fn7x8me2-1226195125222

Ah Tony... Tony...

The picture we should have seen:

Imagine! For the last three days, apart for this stupid stint where Abbott wore another silly suit for another fake explosive occasion, there has not been a peep in the media about Mr Negativity... Three days without Abbott in the lemonlight feels to me like a whole year of positivity...

Massive! Despite the rain let's enjoy the sun... Fresh air... Fanbloodytastic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVt4-BLFBJU

Meanwhile the Tonicchio has approved the US base proposed by Julia in Darwin but he is remonstrating the government for not consulting with him about it... or something like that ... It's hard to know exactly what he does for what stupid reason, but we know what he thinks since he has a negative brainwave pattern at most time...

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has defended the tone of the welcome speech he gave to US president Barack Obama yesterday.

Mr Abbott's address appeared to breach the long-standing convention which says both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader stay well away from internal politics when visiting dignitaries address Parliament.

In his speech, he talked about Prime Minister Julia Gillard's about-face on selling uranium to India, saying he "welcomed the Government's conversion on this subject".

Several on Mr Abbott's side of politics are reportedly unhappy with their leader, with one unnamed MP quoted in today's Sydney Morning Herald as saying "we were squirming in our seats".

But the Opposition Leader defended himself on Channel 9 this morning, saying he was actually praising Ms Gillard, not criticising her.

Asked why his own MPs were unhappy about the speech, Mr Abbott told interviewer Lisa Wilkinson: "I was praising the Prime Minister, Lisa as you do. I mean, far be it for me, Lisa, to be Dr No on this one."

"I was being Dr Yes. I was saying 'Julia, well done Julia. Better late than never'."

The Government has been quick to seize on the issue, with Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd saying Mr Abbott "simply can't control himself on these occasions".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-18/abbott-defends-welcome-speech/3679084?WT.svl=news2

THE Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has come under fire after using his welcoming remarks for Barack Obama as an opportunity to take political potshots at the government.

Mr Abbott, who has broken convention during previous state visits, did so again yesterday when he took potshots at Labor over its policy regarding uranium sales to India and its carbon and mining taxes.

''There's no event too big in which he doesn't show himself to be too small,'' the manager of government business, Anthony Albanese, said. ''He always goes a step too far.''

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, said Mr Abbott's words were unbecoming of somebody aspiring to be prime minister.

''We saw a man trying to inject crude, crass domestic politics into an occasion which should be beyond all that but about our uniform interest in the US alliance.''

Some Liberal MPs were also unhappy. ''We were squirming in our seats,'' one said.

The Abbott approach of angry oppositionism has reached a point of diminishing returns. Three developments this week further demonstrate its limits: the passage of the mining tax, the events in the Coalition party room, and Labor's increased margin in the House through the change in Speaker.

First, the government managed to get its mining tax passed by the House of Representatives, in spite of Abbott's huffing and puffing and angry bluster. This is the chamber where the Coalition's power is at its greatest. The bill's passage through the Senate early next year seems assured. It would then become law.

The mining tax is a prime example of the way the Coalition's eagerness to say "no" has led it to rush into silly positions. The Coalition leadership first decided to oppose the mining tax even while the details were still under wraps, with reporters digesting the details in the government's media "lock-up".

The mining tax is poorly designed. It is not ideal. But the tax on mining is the only tool now in prospect for Australia to manage the mining boom.

The boom, by elevating the Australian dollar, is hammering the competitiveness of every other export sector and every import-competing sector in Australia. Manufacturing, higher education and tourism, for instance, are suffering. Through this "Dutch disease" or "resource curse" effect, mining exerts a brutal force on the rest of the economy. It's a vast convulsive force that makes the carbon tax look trivial in scale by comparison.

Antony Loewenstein

In April 2010, as the war in Afghanistan was raging and US president Barack Obama “surged” 30,000 more troops into the country, Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott suggested that under his leadership, a Coalition government would have considered increasing involvement. “The government should explain why it's apparently right that Nato countries should commit more troops, but not Australia”, he said.

Abbott remained silent on the catastrophic civilian toll since the 2001 invasion, evidence of US incompetence, and failed Western policy in the nation – all of which were revealed in recently deceased journalist Michael Hasting’s blistering 2012 book The Operators.

Instead, Abbott’s commitment was to Washington and a war that had helped, in his own words, to bring “universal decencies of humanity" to a "country which has been pretty short on decency for a very long time”. He was also noticeably silent on Australia’s collusion with the notorious warlord and multi-millionaire Matiullah Khan in the Oruzgan province. Independent reporting from the country, away from embedded journalism on the military’s drip-feed, reveals a damning assessment of 12 years of Western occupation leaving the Afghan people exposed to rampant corruption and rising tensions between India and Pakistan.

As Australia approaches a federal election and with the re-appointment of Kevin Rudd as Labor leader and prime minister, it’s worth considering the similarities and differences in foreign policy between the two major parties. In short, there aren’t many. Although foreign minister Bob Carr recently told the National Press Club that Labor had bravely opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq while in opposition – “there's no way we would have supported that war” if in power, he stated – there are few precedents for a government in Canberra resisting the overtures from America when war is in the air. I believe Labor would have been seduced by the Bush administration’s sweet whispers just the same.

The war, still costing thousands of Iraqi lives every month, is barely discussed today. Without any apparent regret about the massive loss of life, Abbott claims it “advanced everyone’s interest” – except, presumably, the innumerable Iraqis no longer alive. At least in 2008, Rudd rightly blamed a craven Liberal government for taking Australia to war in Iraq based on an intelligence “lie”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/tony-abbott-foreign-policy

The suit worn by Abbott in the image at top is actually not so much to protect him but his magnanimous way of protecting us from him...