Lest We Forget

Huuuuuuge turnout for the dawn service in Christchurch today. Kind of a surreal experience. Momentous occasion for the vets no doubt and it really is a day for them first and foremost - born as I was 70 years after World War I I wouldn't expect it to cater to my ideological preferences. Nevertheless, I can't help feeling that the pomp and ceremony with which we honour the fallen on ANZAC day also insulates us from contemplating the true horrors of war, and I'm not sure that their memory is well served by maintaining the pretence that their blood was the price of our freedom rather than the cost of reckless decisions by sheltered politicians desperate to save their crumbling, squabbling empires, and the credulous nationalism that drew us into their quagmire at the opposite end of the earth. The best way we can honour our fallen heroes is to ensure that we never again allow our leaders to send our youth to die in vain on foreign soil. Lest we forget.