o sung wu

Thanks for the info about the badge. Yes, my father saw active service both in North Africa and in New Guinea. While I was writing the post I was trying to work out why he wore the badge but had no time for the RSL. And now I know. Thank you.

I have only the barest of fragments about my father's war experiences. He was highly intelligent and kind and he returned damaged. The person he could've been and the contribution he could've made wasted.

I understand the reasons for WW2. War is the last resort and should have remained a last resort. Pre-emptive strikes have made a mockery of that.

Paul L - I found your post insensitive in the extreme - every Anzac day I cry (as do so many others) for my father and the loss of so many innocent people; men, women and children. I will continue my father's tradition of not marching in the parade.

Participating in the parade was an idea I had been considering for a few years. However, after writing my posts here and reading yours, I will not add to the glorification of war by my presence. I will comment where I deem it prudent and necessary as I have today. At least I have had some clarification on my ambivalence towards Anzac Day. We need a national day of acknowledgement of the futility of war, then maybe, we will learn again that war is the last resort.

To those who somehow pretend that Anzac Day is not, at least in part, a glorification of war, we only had to see the advertisement at the end of the SBS Anzac Day documentary. Yes, you can buy war CDs, war dramas on TV are always popular, there are picture books, toy soldiers, all sorts of war memorabilia... you name it.

How many peace loving parents have been disconcerted to see their own little 6-year-old playing with guns.

Let's face it, we blokes have testosterone circulating in their biochemical system. I know all about it, I am one of them. Fighting between tribes and nations has been going on for as long as human societies have existed. Blokes love war just as lions like to kill zebras.

Of course we are shocked and crippled by wars that go wrong and when our comrades die in battle, but (in general) that's a small price to pay for the zest and glamour that also goes with warfare. The bloodshed doesn't stop us clamouring for yet another war.

Make no mistake, ANZAC Day is a display of our natural aggression and our love for the spirit of warfare.

That's not to say nothing can be done about it. We also know that there is a wide variety of cultures in the world - some far less aggressive than others. We have plenty of scope to choose the society we want. We can do things that stimulate peace, and we can do things that stimulate aggression.

ANZAC Day could serve to do either, depending on how it is played out. Unfortunately, its key focus has been a subliminal glorification of war, and this is not about to change.

Paul L

‘…to combat exactly the type of ugliness that the so-called “peace-activists” perpetrated upon the Vietnam veterans’

Serious analysis of this scenario has shown it to be an urban myth. The most common version is the one about Vietnam Vets being spat on.

One article about this is here: http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=215

‘Every year, more Australians turn up at ANZAC day events like the dawn service at Gallipoli.’

True. But it’s naïve to believe that the massive investment by the Howard government to promote and expand the Anzac commemoration tradition (to the point of it becoming a major industry in its own right) has had nothing to do with it.

'To those who somehow pretend that Anzac Day........' (Quote: Ghetto)

I don't 'pretend' anything, you pusillanimous little rrrrrsole!

I will return to answer every post that contained my name domani.

I can only manage to put the rubbish out today.

gecko, Sunday, 27 April 2008 6:59:00 PM: "How many peace loving parents have been disconcerted to see their own little 6-year-old playing with guns."

Goodness gracious gecko, what could be wrong with that?

I come from a farming family that has long been into shooting sports, harvesting from the land (no added chemicals) and conservation hunting. None of that makes us favour war, quite the opposite in fact.

Gun owners have to be upstanding members of society without criminal records just to get their licences. The licensed firearms owners I know are normal husbands, wives, teachers, doctors, mechanics and so on and they would all be horrified to be stereotyped as war hawks.

Such stereotyping does you and your argument no credit at all.

There is nothing wrong with the celebration of war. And fighting. And guns. Nothing. The only problem is, when people do not consider the effects of war and waste lives and precious resources on such stupid enterprises. Anyone who supports (or supported) the Afghanistan or Iraq wars are fools and idiots. Just look how much we are paying for petrol.