April 25, 2005
Anzac Remembrance
'Tis Anzac day. I planted trees in the public reserve outside the holiday shack at Victor Harbor early this morning.
Gallipoli is now well established in Australian nationalist mythology, but not as romantic success. Gallipoli is seen as a defeat in which Australian troops proved their valour and forged a new country. It is a foundation myth of the Australian nation.
Hence war is celebrated by the conservatives who say that it is sweet, proper and noble to die for your country. This kind of patriotism celebrates Australia as a warrior nation, whose sons are willing to sacrifice themselves for heroism. The diggers are the noble warriors, and the Legend pits the commitment to nation, duty and mateship against the effete, anti-war, inner city urban lefties.
Now we can think otherwise to this narrative of the conservative keepers of the patriotic flame:
One can be opposed to bad wars and still celebrate Anzac Day: not by remembering it as a "legend of failure"; but by remembering all those innocent lives lost on both sides. One can remember the horror and pain of this war.
These lives were wasted on behalf of the bad imperial strategy of the British, which was designed by Winston Churchill, when he was at Admirality. His strategy was to knock off the Ottoman empire by capturing Instanbul from the sea.