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[Apr. 30th, 2004|03:46 pm]
Tashy
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I just thought I'd share what I wrote for my editorial to go into the student mag for next week.
I, like many other Australians, spent ANZAC day in quiet contemplation. Hearing the Ode read out always sends a shiver down my spine. I cannot imagine what was going through those soldiers minds as they were ordered into gunfire, with the almost certain possibility of death facing them. My great uncle felt the need to protect his country, like so many other men. He fought on the Western Front in WW1, and he died in those God forsaken trenches, fighting for what he believed was the war to end all wars. I honour him even today, like so many others who remember family and friends who gave the ultimate sacrifice. I hope for the day that an Australian never has to die in war again.
But such is the nature of our world. There will always be wars, always the dead to bury, and always those who have to pick up their lives after the smoke clears and the battlefields fall silent. All in the name of a cause that is believed to be just, on both sides of the fighting.
So why did our government decide that Iraq was suddenly a great idea? I guess the UN wasn’t doing enough, all that talk and no action. That rascal Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction! (Or was it the liberation of the Iraqi people? I can’t remember the many reasons that have been cooked up ever since this whole shemozzle got started). And being the loyal allies we are, we follow America into war listening to all the propaganda telling us we are defending what is right, good, holy, Christian and so on. For what Mr Howard? A free trade agreement with the US? Its no secret that New Zealand was shut out of trade talks as soon as they refused to partake in the boys club (AKA Coalition of the Willing) that good ol’ George Dubya set up. I guess that’s what you get for having a female Prime Minister. Sorry Helen Clark, no cigars and brandy for you in the war room this time.
So Prime Minister, are you really so eager to become America’s lap dog that you would risk the lives of our armed forces? True, American has been a strong ally. But does that mean we have to follow them blindly wherever they point? Shame on you John Howard. Our troops will always have my support, but for the man who sends them into a war that was never justified, I have nothing but contempt.
In the words of Wilfred Owen:
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est, Pro patria mori.
Lest We Forget |
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