John Ward says it’s time we, the people, voted on whether we go to war — not allow politicians to squander the lives and health of the Australian people.
The John Howards (Australian prime ministers) of the day, after being exposed as butchers who carelessly threw our poorly trained, badly equipped and shamefully led volunteers onto the wrong beach, then went on a campaign to glorify the slaughter of our sons as an emergence of the Australian nation out of the boiling, maggot-riddled, putrefactive corpses of no-man’s land.
A twisting of the awful truth to cover their shame.
The truth is that the Australian spirit was taken to Anzac Cove, along with our New Zealand brothers, as evidence of the toughness and comradeship born of a people battling to develop a nation in the face of drought, fire and flood.
Politicians have used that same glory bullshit over and over again, each time they commit our youth to go die in someone else’s wars. They are a disgraceful lot of deceivers, who one day will be seen as careless with our service men and women’s lives.
We should celebrate the unflinching service rendered to you and me by the individuals who fought for us. But the raising of that service to the level of almost religious frenzy only gives the soulless bastard pollies like Howard, Hawke, Menzies, Gillard and Abbott a platform to glorify their own actions wrapped in the protective mythological Anzac Day cloak they hide behind.
Any funerals, or remembrance ceremonies, should only ever be led by those who have served and/or lost dear ones in service — that would leave most of the pollies out, except Gorton and Whitlam.
For too long have we, as a people, been thrown into other peoples wars as cannon fodder. It’s time we decided if we go to war — not to leave it to a John Howard, who off his own bat told his cabinet we were in Iraq because he had decided. No Consultation with cabinet or Parliament or the people, no, just one dictatorial little draft dodger sending others off to please his mate George Bush.
If you remember, he pre-positioned the Navy and the SAS weeks before his announcement and even went down to the harbour to wave them off like an ancient Emperor.
Anzac Day is for us to remember the price our families have paid, to go without the promise that was there for our future if they were still with us. And the wounds that were inflicted on us by the damaged souls or mad men that came back still cascades down through the generations.
Anzac Day should be the day we, as a people, remember how badly we have been led into war by politicians like Menzies, who said his brain was too valuable to be wasted on the battle fields of World War One, but who spent his career conscripting others.
It should be the day we remember to never let those inept bastards do it to us again. We should decide by vote if we are going to war, not them — they are only up there in Canberra to satisfy their egos.
How about we have a referendum on the Anzac Day 2015 to vote for ‘No More Invasions’? That would be a proper salute to those who have been betrayed by our political leaders.
After his son’s death, Kipling wrote,
"If any question why we died
Tell them, because our fathers lied."
It is speculated that these words may reveal his feelings of guilt at his role in getting his son, John, a commission in the Irish Guards. John Kipling lasted only two days in battle and was last seen scrambling around in the mud with his face blown off by an exploding shell. What a night mare image for his father to live with. John Kipling’s remains are said to have been finally identified in 1992.
So many stories like this haunt me. It makes me weep for the treasured lives lost. As Ernest Hemingway wrote
“In modern war you die like a dog for no good reason”.
I feel John Howard did the same to us (lied) before his Iraq adventure.
It is now long past the time to stop the bullshit, we must quit lying to ourselves, stop believing we are better or stronger, stop wasting our treasure, squandering what shreds remain of our integrity and reputation and stop killing — ours or theirs.
Don’t salute the bloody coffins, prime minister, open the lids and look inside at what you and your ilk have done.
You missed the opportunity to walk away. Now you say we must stay the course. What do you mean “we”? What you really mean is:
‘you, over there, should continue to do the dying like dogs for no real reason until I say it’s over’.
Well, good for you Prime minister, I remind you Kipling also wrote:
"Power without responsibility — the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”
This is a good description of our recent crop of political leaders, right back to Whitlam — who, by the way, set about getting our people out of Vietnam just two days after he was elected.
My heart is breaking.
(This story was originally published in the Tasmanian Times on 8 January 2012, and has been republished with permission.)
