Commemorating ANZAC Day

If ever anyone was totally devoid of any understanding of the military or of world events it has to be Terry Lane, a hack employed by the Age. In this article Terry is concerned that ANZAC Day hasn’t dissappeared from Australia’s national events.

The anniversary of the Gallipoli invasion is becoming a pseudo-religious, jingoistic event on the national calendar. From a nadir in the 1960s and ’70s when it looked like fading away, Anzac Day has undergone a worrying renaissance

Dam thing just wont fade away. Bloody stupid Australians paying their respect to servicemen who have given their all to ensure the maintenance of a free and stable world.

Instead of reflecting on the event and saying:”Never again do we go blindly and sycophantically where an imperial ally orders us to go, attacking people with whom we have no quarrel and who have done us no wrong”, we have learned nothing.

I, too doubt the wisdom of attacking Gallipoli but it was but one campaign in a long war. Generals trained to fight Zulus with spears in their company and battalion command days, certainly didn’t respond to the arrival of machine guns with any sort of alacrity. The conduct of the war raises alot of questions but the final result doesn’t. Any understanding of Australia in 1914 must conclude that we didn’t see ourelves as Allies of Brittain but as grown up offspring rallying to protect a way of life. The same could be said in WW2. In the early days of the war, pre-Japan, it was reasonable for us to help in stopping Hitler. True, Europe is a long way from Australia but even then we didn’t live in a ‘Southern Seas’ vacuum. Imagine for a moment a world with Hitler on a roll. Frightening. ANZAC Day is not the time to reflect on Terry’s narrow view of the world. It is time to reflect on the sacrifice of thousands of Australians.

…the Turks put up with this insolent reminder of an attack on their territory with what must be either indifference, generosity of spirit or a perceived opportunity to make a lira out of these strange antipodeans who come to celebrate a tragic defeat

A couple of points, Terry. No one ‘celebrates a tragic defeat’ at Gallipoli. All involved, all those young people who visit and all those Australians back home ‘commemorate’ the sacrifice of the men involved. The Turks respect valour and 90 years after the event see nothing wrong with doing so openly. Unlike journalists, Soldiers of opposing Armies can lift above the events of their youth and pay respect in their maturity. Your’s is the only insolence I see, Terry. Reading between the lines Terry has a problem with Iraq and Bush/Howard’s answer to the terrorist problem and is using Gallipoli as a base to underline his superior take on world events. I wonder who it is that we have no quarrel with and who have done us no wrong? Could it be the world-wide Islamic based terrorist cells that are threatening the stability of the world? Is he suggesting that we have no quarrel with the people who murdered the Australians at Bali or the Americans, Australians and others at the WTC? I am constantly amazed at the people who think Iraq has nothing to do with Australia. Why do they insist we live in a vacuum when we clearly do not. Because we are seen as a Christian nation we are a target and because of this it behooves our nation to contribute to putting them down. It’s necessary to contribute as a part of the western world and for selfish reasons – to protect our own people. Terry sees Iraq and our minor contribution there as blindly and sycophantically going where we are told. I see it as paying insurance, trying to protect our people, trying to give Middle East states a democracy and in doing so slowly chip away at the basis for hatred of us westerners simply because we aren’t Moslems. I see it as a confident, mature Australia contributing to world peace. Stay home on ANZAC Day Terry. If you go out and mix with veterans while they are ‘commemorating’ their lost comrades, they may find cause to ‘celebrate’ your expeditious removal from the scene.