LEST WE FORGET -- PART 2

This blog entry will be a bit of a hodge podge of random thoughts on the subject of war; but that's okay. It's what's in me today.

As far as I can determine, there is no animosity between Australians and Turks over Gallipoli. It was nothing personal, after all.

And yet thousands died -- the ultimate sacrifice. What should we make of it all?

I am proud that Australians in wars past are noted for their courage, for being monumental volunteers, for often doing the dirty work and taking the highest casualties. But it is a pride that I'd just soon derive from watching them play on the football field against other nations, not the battlefield.

The preeminent intellectual Noam Chomsky once told me that he is not a fan of emotional speeches. He believes emotion clouds rational thinking. (He even confessed he never liked listening to Martin Luther King.) War and patriotism are often the triggers of high emotions. At the beginning, when the blood is up but not yet spilled, they can seem pretty grand. But the costs can be high. I agree with Chomsky: It is better to weigh up right and wrong to make a decision about heading off to fight rather than saluting any flag that's run up a flagpole by politicians or captains of industry and profiteering.

An 18 year old might see war as adventure but governments repackage it to the masses as patriotism. Patriotism and nationalism can be very dangerous things -- although patriotically cheering on your team at the Olympics is obviously fine. But more on this another time.

I think my Dad probably qualified as what is called a "war hero." Not that he would ever have thought of himself that way. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of him many times and I often wonder what he would say about war if he were still alive. My guess is that he would be much more critical of the why's and wherefor's of it all. But I am enjoying the notion that he now has a cosmic advantage over us all.

War gives perspective to our selfishness and our petty concerns. War is Big World. We must learn from it.

I have little time for war movies, although some have their merit. Most are rather unrealistic, as far as I can tell. Others are blatant propaganda and flag waving. Remember the spate of Hollywood war movies after 9/11? That was no accident. As the comedian Bill Hicks used to say: "Your government is in control."

Which raises the issue of the difference between "wars" and "invasions." Let's mark that one down for future discussion as well.

ANZAC Day numbers were up this year. The original ANZACS themselves are all gone but the mixture of reverence and myth is as ingrained in the psyches of the two countries as ever. I reiterate: That isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as we revere the right things.

Several years ago I interviewed an American veteran of the Battle of the Bulge for a newspaper article. He was a great bloke. Friendly, self-effacing, quietly spoken. We talked about the war he experienced and he had very little good to say about it at all. And towards the end of the interview, out of the blue, he asked rhetorically: "Why are we so warlike?" It is something that has stayed with me over the years.

The final lesson is surely that we must teach peace. Not just preach it, but teach it. To every child. And we must explain it. Teaching the history of wars and their jumble of dates and battles is just so much memory testing and storytelling. We owe it to those who have died in wars to teach peace. We have seen again and again -- and we still do -- the price of not doing this.

ANZAC Day is gone for another year. But in my Aussie heart every day is ANZAC Day, in a sense. And I am grateful for the examples set and the lessons offered. We must remember history as it really happened. That is our duty.

Lest we forget.

Adrian Zupp