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April 25, 2009
The media has gone into overkill on Anzac. Most of this commentary lacks a critical edge about the way this tradition is currently being mythologized as those the nation was born or redeemed in a ruinous defeat at Gallipoli. The subtext of this spectacle is a celebration of the war in the form of historical memory that erases the horror of war at a time when Australia is fighting another war in Afghanistan to support the interests of an imperial power.
There is nothing wrong with commemorating the Anzac tradition and it is great that Australians are recovering their history and developing a historical way of looking at the world. But where is the critical edge about the creeping militarism that equates being an Australian with military virtues, or says that sacrifice for the country is good, even when Australians are treated as cheap fodder in someone else's war?
There is no judgement in the mainstream about the horrors of war, or whether some wars are bad because they, unlike WW2, had little to do with defending Australia's sovereignty. These military ventures ---Afghanistan for instance--- have little to do with Australia's national interest and are wrapped up in mythmaking of courage, honour and sacrifice.
Richard Fyjis-Walker in his review of David Loyn's "Butcher and Bolt - Two Hundred Years of Foreign Engagement in Afghanistan" at Open Democracy observes with respect to this history:
Nor do the invaders change. They come solely for their own ends, politics and profit, be it material, precious lapis, geopolitical concerns or trade routes that today include potential energy pipelines. Arrogant, ignorant and over-confident in their superior armaments and technical development, the invaders seek to impose their own cultures, values and habits - always claiming that they are better for the Afghans than their own, whether they be Communism or Free Market Democracy - by way of puppet leaders and through the barrels of their guns. Meanwhile the Afghan people, a large majority of whom would appear to beg to differ with the invaders and who would like to lead peaceful lives, become the victims of endless misery, death, destruction and poverty.
In this war the Taliban has now become conflated with al-Qa'ida, the land mass of the Middle East has been pushed further east. Once it was Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Now it's Afghanistan and Pakistan with the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan now seen as "the most dangerous place in the world".
Where is the historical memory of this war in the context of previous wars? In the days of the British empire, the British crossed the Durand line from the Raj into Afghanistan. Now the Americans are going to invading in the opposite direction, from Afghanistan into the former Raj. In between were the Soviets. There is a memory hole with respect to Afghanistan.
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My thoughts at http://kenalovell.com/blog/2009/04/25/the-meaning-of-anzac-day/