Killarney

Under your fifth way any care or compassion just perpetuates militarism.

After politicking and cynicism there are still people.

Pete

‘I do believe that Australia and the International community has a responsibility to acknowledge the history and the causalities that war causes’

Fine. So where are all the civilian war memorials? All the war memorials are to soldiers.

What generous benefits do civilians get when our soldiers leave their country after bombing and terrorizing the population for years on end? Are those civilians glorified and canonized with annual parades and commemorations? Are they and their families treated to generous veterans’ benefits for life?

No, they get nothing. Many civilians of past wars are still fighting for justice, compensation and recognition many decades after the wars have ended

Hi,
What you said about the civilians is very true and there needs to be considerable thought about how to ensure that the civilians are protected not only during the conflict but also after. Within international law there is one exercise that looks at the rationale of going to war another that look at how the war is conducted and then after the war.To a large extent the first two have been undertaken however, the last on one has not received the attention it deserves. It is not difficult to argue that in recent conflicts the war has been planned the peace has been forgotten and it is the civilians who suffer.

However, saying all that it is still critical to remember the people who have died or suffered under the cloak of war and this should include military personnel, their family and friends as well as the role played by the population. Look at the role the French villages played in assisting the UK airmen

Killarney

You raise questions for which answers are mostly inadequate.

It sounds insensitive that for societies that can afford them there are civilian gravestones, graveyards, memorials and plaques. Too many bodies at once and little or distracted governance is no help.

Australia patterns of going to war have mainly been overseas, fighting alongside some major country which is meant to have a plan, lately in countries who don't want us there. Lately after we leave those countries are still at civil war and no better off.

Particular countries can be identified who wanted us there and left memorials to civilians. Romingfree identifies France. In WW1 Australians fought in France and Belgium where many civilian memorials remain.

In East Timor, where overwhelming US and Australian forces caused the Indonesian 1999 withdrawal, there are civilian memorials - including for civilians killed by Indonesia's Dili Massacre.

Memorials are not only of stone but can be key political processes, statements and aid. One process was the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor - which benefitted from Australian backup and wouldn't have happened without Australia's 1999 military and aid intervention against the Indonesian occupiers. We give aid to some countries that are in or have experience civil wars - though aid has been slashed.

National Sorry Day is not only about the stolen generation but also about war we whites visited on aboriginal Australians since 1788.

Pete

plantagenet

Yes, there are quite a few examples of countries that erect memorials and hold regular commemorations to civilians who died in wars.

These are almost always countries that fought wars of liberation against foreign occupation or foreign invasion. Because the regular army of both the aggressor and underdog nation was always used to terrorise the population into acquiescence, the people's liberation struggle had to be fought by civilians.

The only time Australia and its allies honour non-combatant civilians who died in wars is if it serves some kind of Western propaganda purpose - like the way the vastly overblown Srebrenica massacre is used to demonise the Serbs and play down the West's deliberate and extensive role in the breakup of Yugoslavia. (And just don't get me started on Australia's nauseatingly hypocritical history with East Timor.)

For countries like Australia, who have a long and sorry history of fighting on the aggressor side of liberation struggles, we actively avoid the discomfort of honouring civilians who died at the hands of our glorious soldiers - at home and abroad. Our history of playing the imperial lapdog locks us into an ongoing narrative of mawkish military worship.