By jingo, it’s ANZAC day, Australia’s favourite nationalist/gambling holiday!
Time to put aside pro-war ANZAC “lest we forget” mythology, which amounts to forgetting everything important in history.
Lest we forget Australia’s role in maintaining British, now American, domination of the world.
Lest Australians forget not only their own suffering, but also those slaughtered by Australian troops — slaughters scrupulously avoided in most patriotic rhetoric, even anti-war songs.
Lest we forget that the most recent glory of the ANZAC legend was the invasion of Iraq, an aggressive war, the supreme crime against humanity, in which Australia was an enthusiastic co-perpetrator.
Lest we forget the imperative to get out of Afghanistan and let all peoples determine their own destiny.
Lest we forget that Australia is one nation among many, an artificial political creation, a genocidally-colonised island, a small planet in an unfathomably vast universe.
“And the young people ask, what are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question.”
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
ANZAC Day