(Australia) Tony Abbott: I was right to put national security before moral posturing
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/27/tony-abbott-pens-essay-trumpeting-his-stance-on-national-security
Tony Abbott: I was right to put national security before moral posturing
Michael Slezak
Saturday 26 March 2016 22.56 EDT
Tony Abbott has penned a 3,706-word essay for the rightwing magazine Quadrant defending and celebrating his two-year period in office.
Australias former prime minister says he is proud of his decision to not join the human rights lobby and take a stand against what he describes tough but probably unavoidable actions taken by the Sri Lankan government during the civil war there.
He doesnt indicate what actions or lobby groups he is referring to. The UN has said it found evidence strongly indicating torture, executions, forced disappearances and sexual abuse committed by Sri Lankan security forces against the countrys Tamil ethnic minority, who were fighting a separatist war.
Abbott says not mentioning the alleged war crimes would have pleased the Sri Lankan president, which was important because it was a seminal truth that all politics is personal an aphorism he attributes to the US vice-president, Joe Biden. He suggests his diplomacy allowed the two countries to cooperate more strongly to stop asylum seekers arriving by boat to Australia.