logitech009 wrote:well you don't need to be old to wear one...in fact almost everyone in canada wears one this time of year. although it is based on the armistice for ww1, the day is a remembrance for all veterans, no matter which war.
i'm only 20 its not about age
Keating blasts Aussie Gallipoli visitors
October 31, 2008 - 9:19AM
Former prime minister Paul Keating says the motives of Australians who show up at Gallipoli each year for Anzac Day ceremonies are misguided.
Speaking at a book launch in Sydney yesterday, he said Australia's involvement with the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 was divided by loyalties to the British Empire and a desire for a more independent Australia.
"On the one hand we were out to prove that 'the British race in the antipodes had not degenerated', yet we resented being dragooned into a war which did not threaten our own country or its people," Mr Keating said.
Given Australian loyalties to England at the time, Keating said it was entirely understandable that Australia troops fought the Turks at Gallipoli, but the experience was shocking.
"Dragged into service by the imperial government in an ill-conceived and poorly-executed campaign, we were cut to ribbons and dispatched," he said.
He added he was disappointed some Australians still held the view Australia was redeemed at Gallipoli.
"An utter and complete nonsense," he said.
"Without seeking to simplify the then bonds of the Empire and the implicit sense of obligation, or to diminish the bravery of our own men, we still go on as though the nation was born again or even, was redeemed there."
Mr Keating said he had never visited Gallipoli, and never would.
AAP
i generally agree with both statements.Vaucluse wrote: Remembrance is all well and good, but public displays of nationalism is not.
Remembrance while still making the same mistakes and people dying in the name of this and that, no thanks.
Very good points hibri. Substitute corporate interests with hegemonic interests and you have covered 99% of the wars . . . the soldiers themselves are rarely the instigators of wars . . . but they are always the losers.hibri2 wrote:i generally agree with both statements.Vaucluse wrote: Remembrance is all well and good, but public displays of nationalism is not.
Remembrance while still making the same mistakes and people dying in the name of this and that, no thanks.
on the other hand i will just like to point that not always the national armies where serving corporate interests turning into nothing more than mercenaries, and sometimes the mistakes are not made by those who remember or those who are forced to participate on the business of war orchestrated by the owners of some countries.
sometimes soldiers are very much the victims of a group greed, and it will be way better to have everybody read and acknowledge the message of "Johnny Got His Gun" by dalton trumbo...
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Are there any old diggers even left to prop up for this? 
