ANZAC Day
I have had conflicting feelings about ANZAC Day for as long as I can remember. On one hand there is a need to recognise what has been given up by Australian soldiers but on the other hand there has been the co-option of the ANZAC story as a way to drum up support for unjustified military action (Iraq, for example).
Australians soldiers have fought both both as volunteers and as conscripts for a little over a hundred years yet we have never faced an invasion on Australian soil. The closest we’ve come is midget submarines in Sydney and the bombing of Darwin. Australia fights other countries’ conflicts with its “defence force” (as opposed to “armed forces”); some are peacekeeping missions such as East Timor while others are wars of ideology such as Iraq and Vietnam. My struggle is to honour the memory of those whose lives were tragically cut short yet to not paint war as some glorious endeavour for which we should all be prepared and of which we should be proud.
The soldiers who have fought in questionable wars such as Vietnam have essentially lost themselves above all else. Vietnam veterans struggle to find meaning and camaraderie (not to mention people who understand) in the world outside war and hence are attracted to biker gangs. We have failed our soldiers if we can not welcome them back in to mainstream society after they been through so much. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is something we see more and more due to high pressure conflicts such as Iraq. If we can not accept that war destroys people, how can we honour their service?
Throughout the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq I thought of myself as supporting the troops but not the war. It’s not the troops who decided to go off to the Middle East and fight a retaliatory war in Afghanistan and a war for resource security in Iraq (thanks, Brendan Nelson, for the tip-off). Australia’s soldiers have said that they want to serve their country and protect its security. By sending them off to fight America’s wars we are putting them in mortal danger and taking the gift of their service for granted. The Howard government, by writing a blank cheque for military support for the USA, has sold out our defence force.
I wish to see our soldiers safe. I recognise that good people can be driven to do bad things under the intense pressure of war. I hate our government for getting us involved in one of the most costly (in terms of money, resources and life) conflicts in decades. I recognise that those who have fought for us deserve to be honoured. I recognise that many of those who died did so needlessly through tactical blunders such as landing at Gallipolli or through fighting someone else’s war. I thank those who served in World War II to protect us from the Axis powers. I pity those that fought against their will. I apologise to those we have sent overseas to fight for another nation in wars of aggression. I deeply respect those who have joined peacekeeping forces.
ANZAC Day, to me, like religion, is a deeply personal thing. We have marches so that those who have survived war can know that we as a nation value what they have done. I choose to remember at home with a day of introspection rather than getting caught up in the parade atmosphere and giving ammunition to conservatives who would seek to use the ANZAC story as a political tool.
Postscipt: This comment at last year’s ANZAC Day thread at LP is one of the best opinions on the day that I have read. ANZAC Day should be to each person what it is to each person.
Hi Sam. I’m sorry but I don’t share your bleak view of Anzac Day.
Men and women join the armed forces not knowing where they will go, who they will fight or why. Our leaders decide that and the soldiers almost always diligently obey. Indeed, if the armed forces were to not obey orders, our defence would be compromised.
I would imagine most soldiers (and most people) don’t follow current affairs as closely as political commentators. Many of the young men and women flying off to foreign wars don’t have the breadth of knowledge about the wars they are going to as the commentators and politicians.
Yet they go anyway and risk their lives. We should blame and chastise our leaders for follies such as Iraq. We should however be thankful we have soldiers who risk their lives for us.
With the greatest respect, I must say that I think there is a flaw with your argument Sam.
You say that you don’t like it how conservatives use Anzac Day to drum up support for their various military idiocies.
But in this blog post, aren’t you using Anzac Day as a timely and emotive day to voice your opposition to war?
Supplement: Yes I do agree conservatives shouldn’t use Anzac Day to further their agenda!
A message of the horrors of war versus a message of glorifying war. A blog versus the Prime Minister’s office. There’s a big difference.
Also I think I made it pretty clear that I have a great respect for soldiers but very little respect for those that would send them to their unnecessary deaths.
I’m afraid I have to agree with Andrew on this issue. When the Australian government sends our armed forces into conflict, I do not see this as taking advantage of their service. Those who make an informed decision to join the defence force do so in full knowledge that they will inevitably be called up for duty, be it war, peacekeeping or otherwise. With respect to one’s reasons for joining, I can only speculate however I am sure that the common thread that unites Australia’s troops is the desire to serve one’s country with pride. Of course, the mere propostition of sending troops into conflicts such as Iraq is abhorrent. However, for those who decide their worth is in serving our nation, their service in foreign lands is a realisation of this desire.
Back to the issue at hand, I strongly believe that most Australians view ANZAC day as a day of rememberence above all else. One only need look at the symbolism embodied in the day’s events to realize this. Thousands of people flock to the ANZAC day parade not to celebrate the spoils of war but to comment and respect those who risked their lives to defend our great nation. Even though many veterans of war have passed on, their sacrifice is not forgotten; instead it lives on through their children and grandchildren who proudly march in their place. For all that happens on this day, it is not war we paint as the glorious endeavour, rather the ultimate sacrifice thousands of men and women made for the future of our country and its prosperity. Above all else, “lest we forget”.
correction to previous comment *commend, not comment!
It’s not taking advantage of their service by sending them into conflict in general but sending them into unnecessary conflict in which we are fighting without the blessing/support of the UN not to free a people but to secure future energy sources. The incursion in Iraq isn’t a noble war to protect innocents, it’s not an attempt to contain an expansionist maniac and it’s not even a response to an attack. John Howard sending our troops to Iraq was a terrible thing to do. We have put them in great danger and we have made ourselves a target for being involved with America’s neo-imperialist foreign policy.
If our soldiers desire to serve our nation with pride, why are we sending them into a shameful American war?
Sorry but I don’t really understand your point of argument Sam. How are government decisions regarding present day conflicts in any way associated with remembering and honouring the sacrifices made at Gallipoli and other wars past? How do current affairs impede on this day dedicated to rememberance?
John Howard, and other conservatives, used the ANZAC story as a way to arouse the nation’s passion and turn it in to support for what has always been a questionable war. By appealing to our sense of pride in our soldiers, those emotions can be redirected towards support for the war by making the equivalency argument that if one doesn’t support the war then one doesn’t support the troops (and thus feels no thanks for those who have served before).
It’s a politicisation of a day of remembrance. We should remember that war is a terrible waste of life and ANZAC Day is as good a day as any to do that, given that we pay our respects to fallen soldiers and the families that lost them. ANZAC Day is most certainly not the most appropriate time to make the claim for greater involvement in conflict.
Aren’t you simply politicizing Anzac day here as a way to garner support for your anti-war stance?
What sort of influence do I have on a small blog when compared to the influence the Prime Minister has? That’s a sloppy argument, Andrew.
I’m not trying to turn support for the troops into support for a political decision I foisted on to the nation.
Several years ago, a couple of weeks before the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, I was engaged in conversation with a family friend who is a WWII veteran, and he asked if I was going to the poofters parade, to which I replied “no, I don’t go to the ANZAC day march”. His wife burst out laughing, if he’d been eating wheaties he would have choked, and I felt highly embarrassed about making a joke about ANZAC day, to a digger who’d lost his brother during the war. As penance I attended the ANZAC day march – there was too much flag waving and patriotism for my liking, I haven’t been again.
For Australia to turn its back on England by becoming a republic is effectively reducing the worth of the sacrifice that WWI/II veterans made in England’s defence. It is no surprise then that veterans of these conflicts and their families are by and large monarchists, and that ANZAC day could be viewed historically as a defacto march in support of the British Empire. Family members marching in the stead of those who are unable, or who have died, extends this monarchist linkage, and (as a republican) I oppose it.
I am not against war, but it must be only engaged in as the last resort. We have been too hasty in joining wars in the past, and Afghanistan and Iraq are but the latest examples. To my mind the US not having an extradition treaty with Afghanistan, and Iraq having oil that the US wanted, are not even close to sufficient reasons for Australia starting a war. Neither country had the capability to significantly damage us, nor the will to do so.
For me ANZAC day is a time to remember those soldiers who followed orders and did their duty for Australia, on the most part brave men and women, who went off to kill others who meant us no harm (but were similarly following orders). They were brave, but they lacked the courage to put bullets into our prime minister, minister of defence, and their ilk, that could have reversed the decision to participate in these optional wars entirely, and thus preserve a generation from witnessing and participating in the horror of war.