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ANZAC Day April 25th, 2005…
I awoke at 4.30am this morning (the time the landings at Gallipoli began) in readiness for an emotional day, remembering the solemn reason for the commemorations. A day no Australian or New Zealander should ever forget, or ever ignore. A few (un-connected) thoughts occurred to me as I dressed and readied before heading to the Cenotaph at Robertson Park in town for the 5.30am service.
This is not a new thought, but it’s something that always comes back to present mind on a day like this. Through no disrespect at all to those brave diggers who defend and fight for our countries it just seems that going to war, with arms and anger, is ultimately futile. Really the only outcome is the loss of so many lives over what normally turns out to be a misunderstanding or disagreement between political or religious groups. And rather than those, who misunderstand or disagree, reaching a solution they send innocent lives to do battle for them. Most often very little is won; all too often very many lives are lost.
On television’s ABC last night a report was documented about a different angle to Gallipoli that put into my mind a different and more insightful perspective. The thought was put forward that on that cold April morning in 1915 the ANZACs were attempting to invade someone else’s country by force. The terrified Turk defenders, on the other hand, were there on those cliffs over the beach defending their own homeland…… the Allies were the aggressive invaders. The fact that neither side saw the other as a true enemy seems almost unique. For example a month into hostilities the mutual truce that the troops themselves on both sides decided - to be able to walk across no-mans land to gather and bury their dead, meet each other, swap food and cigarettes and shake hands - proved that.
Whether it’s a political decision to ignore it, or that the aspect has been conveniently forgotten I’m not sure, but today no-one talks about why this tragedy took place. Has everybody forgotten that the British commanders stubbornly sent our brave boys to those rocky shores after a terrible navigational blunder? The troops were meant to land a few kilometres further down the beaches but a strong ocean current carried the fleet way past the landing point. Instead of calling it off those British commanders, knowing that other landings were taking place much further south, drove on and sent our boys to almost certain death or serious injury, without remorse. And it wasn’t only on this Turkish front that the same morbid, emotionless attitude was demonstrated by those primeval British military minds, devoid of human conscience and intelligence, who regarded the value of non-British lives as expendable. This was immortalised in the Hunters & Collectors song about those times in the two lines -
"..when the English colonel said it’s time to go..…and he said ‘What’s a few men?’ ".
One wonders how our modern-day nation, so heavily influenced by the nonsensical, idiotic and child-like American litigious legalities and its un-Australian insistence on blaming someone else - anyone else - for one’s very own stupidity, would’ve approached such a tragedy back then. How huge would the royal inquiry have been to find someone else to blame. Times have changed. In this day & age where someone else is apparently always to blame we are still at least able to accept Gallipoli, and to an extent most of the horror of World War I, as something we can’t change, but something to always honour, respect and never forget.
War, and the reasons behind it, has changed. Until relatively recently war was fought between nations, between religious forces, with definite boundaries and geographical objectives. In the last 50 years those geographical boundaries have all but disappeared and we now face "misunderstandings and disagreements" amongst ourselves. Nowadays, with global multi-culturalism, we fight internal wars. Terrorism knows no geographical boundaries. There seems to be less devotion to a flag and country. We’re constantly looking over our shoulder. We’re faced with individuals who value their life, as well as the lives of others, with a grain of salt. In some people’s religious philosophies they believe in the next life, but those same people ignore the fact that their current life on Planet Earth is just as important. We all know whom I refer to.
There is no honour in the reasons for war – there is however full honour in going to war to defend the natural rights and freedom for those of us who are subjugated by the few who, themselves, never have to face the nightmare of being under fire with the threat of losing their own lives.
As I pulled back into the driveway and the garage I turned to look at the dark, dawn heavens. A large bank of dark cloud sat across the eastern horizon and as the first rays of sun rose through those clouds they turned a deep blood red. I couldn’t help but see the symbolism, and it took me back to that very early morning exactly 90 years ago when so much blood was spilt on foreign soil from so many of our brave forefathers.
Some important quotes
"Those heroes that shed their blood And lost their lives...
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore, rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side,
Here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries...
Wipe away your tears.
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land, they have
Become our sons as well."
"They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
we will remember them."