Anzac Day has just passed. Each year I sense the words adopted by our Anzac forefathers meaning changes.
LEST WE FORGET
Meaning “It should not be forgotten” taken from a 19th century poem. Gallipoli was an unmitigated disaster a cluster screw up of the worst magnitude that underscored the futility of war. Eight thousands seven hundred Aussies alone were killed and many more on the blood soaked battlefields of Europe. Far from our homeland they fought and for what? Glory, freedom, god and country, peace?
Our Anzacs learned how futile wars were and with these three words LEST WE FORGET were reminding us to not forget the ugly lessons learned about wars. Wars that we fought not at home but further afield on foreign soils spilling the blood of Australian soldiers that had been conscripted or volunteered to fight for glory, honor, king and country blindly marching off to war.
LEST WE FORGET our Anzac forefathers didn’t want us to forget. But we did. They were warning us not to fall into the trap of being sucked into wars by our power crazed politicians obeying our megalomaniac mother Englands wishes. War serves little purpose in the end but encourages hatred, racism and violence and ends in needless deaths on all sides. WW 1 was a disaster that should have been a warning to us all.
LEST WE FORGET.
There is no glory in war yet we didn’t learn the from the failures of the past and our puffed up politicians have led us time and time again into bloody struggles. Following our commonwealth masters or US ‘allies’ blindly into battle at their beck and call. And our people have been manipulated to heed the call and line up to fight the good fight.
LEST WE FORGET.
WW I was bad enough. and we took no heed, Then Korea, no heed Vietnam no heed and Afghanistan no heed. Our Defence forces’ thousands of miles from home fought against our concocted enemies in their own countries. We fought against people that were in most cases fighting off foreign invaders. They were fighting for their own countries freedom.
In Korea and Vietnam we were hoodwinked into believing the communists were about to invade our shores so we bombed and buried millions of Korean and Vietnamese civilians and fighters without mercy. And the senseless war raged on and on until we realised it was all for nought and tail between our legs we retreated.
LEST WE FORGET.
Then lessons again forgotten our war loving power-lust leaders shoved us overseas again to fight another cluster screw up in the Middle East. Afghanistan we mercilessly killed those ferocious and evil Taliban. Civilians they that took up arms against us the the invaders and we painted them as demons to support and extend the needless slaughter. They were fighting on their own soil for their own freedom yet our spin doctors used the horrendous nature of war as propaganda to enrage further hatred from us at home thousands of miles away. And for what? Another costly embarrassing retreat with yet again nothing to have been gained but the body bags and the physicality and mentality maimed.
LEST WE FORGET
20 million people killed in WW1, 60 million in WW2, 2.5 million in the Korean War, 3 million in Vietnam, 176 thousand in Afghanistan and the killing spree continues elsewhere.
Are the bugles of war screeching their call to arms again. We are spending Billions of taxpayer dollars like confetti on war machines. They are built for only one thing. The ugly truth is our military industry, politicians and generals like nothing better than some shiny new killing toys. Our war industry is pushing and getting a big injection but for what? There seems to be a lot of Saber rattling going on of late. Probably highlighted by the Russian invasion of the Crimea and the Ukraine.
There is an old Chinese saying - When trade stops war starts
LEST WE FORGET is not a call to arms but a call to peace.
Please God let our leaders have the courage to say no to sending our men and women to another war. Say no to our power intoxicated politicians and military Allies. Be independent Australia and neutral in how we treat our global neighbors and not get sucked in.
LEST WE FORGET
Jon from Port Melbourne
Footnote
I didn’t want to publish my thought prior to Anzac Day as my aim is not to besmirch tor belittle he sacrifices and bravery of our armed forces. I hope we humans have evolved enough and can look beyond these conflicts.
We need to keep trading and talking with our neighbours LEST WE FORGET the lessons of our past.
As the next big conflict there may be nothing LEFT TO FORGET.
