Lest We Forget?

It's coming. Anzac Day is a couple of weeks away, and with it we get the yearly warnings from RSL Presidents fearful of babies in strollers, that retard Tony Abbott reminding us (with great Catholic eloquence) that it is a sacred day. Divine and holy. The most important day of the year. Wear a suit and tie. Don't forget.

You'd think they'd be satisfied. Gallipoli has become one of the most popular stops on the backpacker pilgrims trail. It's right up there with those gay kangarooo/Foster's themed pubs in England, stealing giant beer mugs at Oktober fest and drinking blue 2 euro cocktails on a Greek island til you pash another bogan and/or pass out. Thousands of them, bussed down from İstanbul, still hungover from the bars of Sultana-met, covered in flags they carried from Sydney, standing starry eyed in that beautiful cove, swept up in that most despcicable of emotions - nationalistic pride.

Lest we forget? Remembering death is an important thing, sure. For the families and friends of those who died. National memory? Lest we forget the decisions of politicians and generals who sent them there. Lest we forget that those deaths happened under, and because of that flag you are warming yourself with in the cool April air. Lest we forget that still, now, 90 years later, the same stupid politicians and generals send boys and girls to kill other boys, girls, mothers and fathers in foreign lands in which we have no business, led by powers who can still rely on our fear of invasion by some yellow peril to the north.

How despicable, that these deaths continue to be used as a patriotic badge by opportunistic politicians. I shudder when I think how many times we will have to hear 'Lest we forget' uttered from both sides of the Parliament, having involved us in more filthy war. They forget so easily, those hypocrites who mourn the loss of life in Turkey, France, Vietnam, those hypocrites who fail to prevent more death and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least be honest. Stand up and say on April 25: I forgot. I forgot because I decided, as they did in 1910, and 1939, and 1961, and since the beginning of time that the 'national interest' was worth more than human life. Don't show up at Gallipoli and Martin Place, wear rosemary and think this act makes up for the evil you have perpetrated that defiles the memory of dead youth.

We see your hypocrisy, and it sucks.