Two points.
1).The author has built a straw-man of he believes other people think about ANZAC day: It hasn't very limited value and certainly doesn't align with my thoughts or people I know.

2).The author needs to understand that war is simply an extreme form of negotiation. It's a tool used to get a result when others means are not working.
Just as a bucks during the runt will measure each others horns and if they can't come to agreement over who has priority then they fight.

To believe we can make a world were there is no conflict is to have no grip on reality.

Anzac day might putatively be the commemoration of the first combined Australian fighting force, but today it is far more than that. It is a recognition of the young men that went to fight wars on the behalf of their country for poor pay, terrible conditions and a huge risk of being killed or maimed.

While the majority of those anti war keep their thoughts to themselves on this day, there are always those bogans that think it is appropriate to offend those mourning friends and family that died serving their country.

Yes Cobber, those who march do so to honor the fallen, not to glorify war! And but for those fallen folk, we would be speaking Japanese or german and asking (please boss) permission from foreign masters, to take a leak!

What they couldn't take by force of arms is now for sale and at bargain basement prices?

A new chum was introduced to trench warfare at Gallipoli. And standing ankle deep in human excrement, as the sky was almost blotted out by anti personnel shell fire, and as high velocity rounds cracked by, covered his eyes and wailed, "this must be what hell is like"? To which a seasoned digger remarked "yes, but at least there are no flamin flies".

Righteous war and we've been involved in a couple? Are just never about revenge, just defense of practically everything and everyone you hold dear.

Being shot at is just not fun nor boy's own adventure, nor is having to silence that fire with accurate returned fire; and the stuff of (ripped awake in terror) nightmares for some?

The Author comes across as someone who not only has never served, but has a completely false impression about the reasons a nation like ours would seek to participate!?
Rhrosty.

Yes, we do seem to be caught up in a wave of militaristic jingoism. Why, for instance is our government spending nearly six hundred million dollars commemorating the "great war", and promoting Gallipoli as a place of "sacred" pilgrimage.
Why not check out references to the book Anzac An Unauthorized Biography by Carolyn Holbrook, via the Honest History website.

Well I think the author made excellent points and I don't have any reason to argue anything that was said in his article, unlike others.

I think ANZAC day today is nothing but an excuse for politicians to stand on a podium and ingratiate themselves at taxpayers expense.

They claim to care about this country and its a day of nationalism, but that's all it is, 1 day, the other 364 days a year they are pandering to foreigners and sending our boys to fight in other peoples wars and selling our country off.

For my mind (not so much in WWI and WWII but certainly true today) a soldier is only a soldier when hes defending his country and the second he takes his foot off our soil, he becomes a paid mercenary doing the dirty business of others.
Its not that hard to understand.

Thank you Peter. Very well said.

I do sympathize with those who went to war and came back, never able to take up the life on offer before they went to war.

Our indigenous soldiers came back and got treated as they were treated before, as though they were inconvenient beings standing in the way of white settlement.

Then there were the Vietnam vets, many drafted against their will, coming back to a populace who had become anti the war in Vietnam. No glory accorded to them. No myths of bravery to be handed down to future generations. It was an unholy war - a price we paid to try to get the US, that evil empire, to remain in Asia, now that Great Britain had abandoned us.

Soldiers are trained to do one thing, one thing only, to kill - the enemy. Those who are drafted had no choice. Those who choose to join up may not do so just to be patriotic. For instance for the blacks and hispanics in America joining up is one road out of their dire socio-economic circumstances. Hyping up the sacrifice of soldiers is something politicians often do, probably so that we can have a defence force without coercion or undue bribe.

No doubt having a defence force is a necessary evil of being a nation. But that is not an excuse for the myths we build up and up surrounding ANZAC.

There is another good essay, in the Conversation: https://theconversation.com/in-remembering-anzac-day-what-do-we-forget-57629?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%2020%202016%20-%204702&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%2020%202016%20-%204702+CID_52cdb749dafc652a4c4c6fce58d7d54d&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=In%20remembering%20Anzac%20Day%20what%20do%20we%20forge