Anzac

Here in Australia it is ANZAC day today. But what does it all mean to me...when I was younger and in the army reserves I got up for Dawn Service, marched in my starched uniform and highly polished boots and shed the obligatory serious tear for those who had suffered and died for'our freedom'( such as it is)...when I was even younger still I read Wilfred Owen with an unpleasant sort of passion and a definite conciousness of feeling sick at the levels our human condition can stoop to...and younger again I had a flirtation with books about the French foreign legion and the romance of suffering and war...and now older, what?
The so called ANZAC LEGEND is apparently a large and important part of our national identity. What exactly does this mean? The Gallipoli campaign around which this legend is built was a failed campaign...the day itself was set aside to commemorate the deaths of untold men, many of whom had no idea about what they really fought for, or the politics behind it all, many of whom did not really want to be there, many of whom grew up on a romanticised idea of war that was badly put to rest during this campaign...many of whom believed they were doing the 'right' thing...now we use this day to commemorate the soldiers of other wars...there seem always to be wars...and many of these do not seem any more successful( can a war be successful), to have made any more sense or bought us any more 'freedom' ....but rest assured they have bought us death, suffering, pain, senseless killing of children and destruction of the environment...

I have read in many places...'The spirit of ANZAC recognises the qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice which were demonstrated at the Gallipoli landing.' I have witnessed my children being taught these concepts at school. All these things are good things, but sacrifice is a personal choice, and the many innocents involved in War actions do not have the opportunity to make this choice...mateship is important, especially in hardship...but when is mateship, mateship and when is it peer pressure?...courage is also good, I teach my children that sometimes it is more courageous to walk away from conflict than to involve oneself in it...be sure, I say, that you have tried other more civilised ways of resolution before you jump the gun...

The Philosopher Denis Diderot comments that war is "a convulsive and violent disease of the body politic;" Cicero defines war broadly as "a contention by force";'War' defined by Webster's Dictionary is a state of open and declared, hostile armed conflict between states or nations," Kant had what I beleive to be a pessimistic view, he says: "War...seems to be ingrained in human nature, and even to be regarded as something noble to which man is inspired by his love of honor, without selfish motives."
Now we step into a moralistic view of war...into the related area of political philosophy in which conceptions of political responsibility and sovereignty, as well as notions of collective identity and individuality, are explored. ....But here we have other problems like...disagreements on whether all is fair in war, or whether certain modes of conflict ought to be avoided and what those modes should be..in other words 'how does one behave in War?.... ( can you behave when killing and being killed?)

Li Po an acient chinese poet from the Tang dynasty wrote:

In the battlefield men grapple each other and die;
The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven,
While ravens and kites peck at human entrails,
Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees.
So, men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass,
And the generals have accomplished nothing.

The act of dying is the end of a life. Are we willing to send our sons, husbands and even daughters...to die on the whim of a commander’s order, to finalise their lives...

Gallipoli was just such a mistake... the whim of a mistaken commander, a black comedy of errors...such lost lives cannot be regained.

And then it is just not our loved ones who die...it is also who they are commanded to kill...would we kill if before killing someone, we were asked get to know them first. ..as people, with families and their own unique way of looking at the world???

So yes, I guess remember ANZAC…but not as romantic legend…as a travesty…and remember the Anzacs…but not as heroes…as men, who did what they believed and have learnt…please God let us have learnt…