Everywhere one looks there is flag blinded cheerleading for ANZAC Day in the mainstream media. Little is being done to critically evaluate the manner in which NZers were failed by the British, little to critically evaluate our invasion of Gallipoli, little to critically evaluate what exactly have we learned from throwing our best and brightest into the mincer of war.
We need our myths and we need to blindly ignore the lessons. That wilful ignorance is made more galling because Key has decided our price for being in the 5 Eyes Club is to reinvade Iraq.
So who are our allies in this secretive re-invasion of Iraq? We are on the side of the Syrians who have tortured to death tens of thousands of their own. We are on the side of Iraq whose brutal crackdown on the Sunni led to ISIS gaining power in the first place. We are on the side of brutal Iranian backed Shia militia who are slaughtering people, beheading them, throwing them off tall buildings, and putting their crimes on social media.
The glorious dead who lie silent while we mouth hollow promises to never forget must truly mourn our inability to learn from their graves.
Shit Martyn you read my mind as I go with my national servicemen mates from our 10th intake 1964.
Sure we got a service medal to wear for our service, but just what war are we going to reflect on?
As for me it will be to honour all those who fell on foreign fields for our freedoms we had until PM Key came and wrecked it all again.
Nothing under his watch is worth us thinking of in the same light as those young men & women who gave their lives for others to have real freedoms from repressive Autocratic governance abroad, but we now one encroaching on our own shores as “The enemy within”
We all now feel threatened at home so it will be a sad omen to what we always enjoyed as a “day of remembrance” for betterment of our own people.
It’s even more suspect and disturbing if you consider the post WW1 history of the whole Middle East region. One hundred years should be enough time for New Zealanders to see past the veil of tears our leaders insist on putting up before us every Anzac day.
More thoughts here on related topic(s)
http://100yearsoftrenches.blogspot.co.nz/
When Jesus Christ castigated the Pharisee’s regarding their hypocrisy in making grand tombs for the very prophets that the leaders of Israel had ordered their executions as ‘ heretics ‘ , ‘ anti govt ‘ , ‘ subversives ‘ – calling the Pharisee’s hypocrites and that they were like dead tombs full of dry bones themselves…
It seems there are parallels with the deflection of guilt , sanctimoniousness and fawning to which many modern day politicians use the sentimentality of Gallipoli and the ANZAC’s in particular for their own justification of being part of the club.
One only has to think of John Key’s unilateral decision to commit our troops to train Iragi troops to combat ISIS …he had no mandate to do so. And it was not democratically given to him as a mandate.
He once stated that there will probably be no committing of troops.
He lied.
And we all know their mission will not stop at being ‘ trainers ‘.
This new -found moral high ground of being on the ‘ right side ‘ , of having ‘ guts ‘….
Well , this is something new , …where was this moral high ground when Key was using the GSCB to illegally spy on Kim Dotcom?
Or lying about XKEYSCORE ?
Or mass surveillance?
Or the anti democratic effluence spewing out of his office involving the SIS that he claims he didn’t know anything about ?
Did he have some ‘ guts ‘ to own up to his own bald faced lying then ?
Was he so keen to preach about ‘ being on the right side ‘ then ?
If a chronological sequence of events of all the lies and skulldugery was compiled about this man ,……
He too would be cast exactly as those Pharisee’s were in being described as ‘ whitewashed tombs full of dry dead bones ‘ ….as he is quite prepared to expend troops lives in pursuit of enabling and maintaining the staus quo for the benefit of the 1 % rich listers and their own benefit.
He is a hypocrite and there is no ‘moral ‘ high ground in his agenda.
Here you go.
https://offkey.hackpad.com/Honest-John-NgiWfXTpnvD
Excellent . Thank you .
John Key and all and everyone he stands to protect, have no compassion, no respect, no humanitarian sense of well being, except to have the well being for all they can get, by any means for themselves.
Nothing has any meaning anymore to the likes of profiteers and their greed, because corporate pushing politicians profiteering over everything is more important in their views and opinions.
Meanwhile, we of the underdog society have to fight for our rights, when there shouldn’t need to be any need to do so.
Our ANZAC history has no meaning to capitalists, because it doesn’t bring in a major profit. What’s the bet Key will try pushing a bill through parliament to remove this tradition from us?
Interestingly the same way you seek to dehumanise your political opponents nations involved in armed conflict seek to do the same of their enemies.
Perpetual war means big profits for greedy arms dealers, drug dealers and those who need bases everywhere and minerals/oil etc. to extract. Keep countries in unrest and unstable so the US can play the world’s policeman and intrude where they are not welcome. Perpetual war, lying to the young men who think they are fighting for a countries freedom. Go John Key and join up with the U.S. and other war mongering countries and perpetuate war based on lies and greed and then play the immense hypocrite role on Anzac Day.
http://riseuptimes.org/2015/03/03/%E2%96%B6-noam-chomsky-snowden-chomsky-isis-iraq-war-u-s-terrorism-u-s-slavery-venezuela-greece-spain/
What a coincidence I am currently reading this book about how JP Morgan was funding England and France in WW1 to fight Germany now England and France were close to losing the war as Germany had submarines controlling the routes that supplied them with allies munitions and other necessary items and JP Morgan and co would of lost billions and his empire if that was to happen. Anyhow to cut along story short he had to get his allies involved in the war(U.S) but at that time they could nt (U.S)be involved cause they had sign a treaty that neutral countries could not participate so they hatched a cunning plan with the then president Woodrow Wilson the media( controlled by JP Morgan) at the time and Winston Churchill to send a British ship through those routes that the German U-boats controlled called the Lusitania which was a passenger ship full of British and Americans on board knowing full well that the Germans were going to torpedo it hence America is involved in the war and JP Morgan and co profits are protected. They sent people on that ship knowing that they were going to be killed to protect their profits WTF is that and i’m afraid its still happening today!!
Yep – except they shoot down airliners these days, instead…..
It seems like your book is very poorly researched. What treaty did the US sign that meant they had to remain neutral?
Gosman whats up dude you seem to be critical when your English heritage gets critique assuming your European gathering that you seem to be defensive when English or Americans come under criticism.Look up the history for yourself or I guess you have but the information does’nt suit your interpretation the essence of what I wrote is correct and the writer is a world class academic I don’t see you putting books out on the market there GASMAN!!
Does this mean you don’t know what the treaty was that meant the US had to remain neutral?
Maybe I worded the sentence differently to the writer as I was rushing my sentences ( no excuse) and still in the process of reading the rest of this book, I am a newbee on these bloody keyboards and to be a good sport I will give you the name of the book and you can critique for yourself if you wish hope you enjoy?
The Creature from Jekyll Island
Maybe you didn’t really understand what the author was trying to convey.
Although you speak the truth, you are looking at this this through very black and white lenses.
@ ‘ JOHN ” . You don’t make sense . Martyn does . Brilliantly I might add . So I’ll go with Martyn . Black and white make grey . A grey lens . I see .
Since FJK screamed “Get some guts” in OUR parliament, it seems his american mates are now creaming it, off the NZ taxpayer, just like america. A defence force contract has already been given to a San Diego firm. The caterers of army food are now going to step down and it will be privatised, 80 jobs lost there, but who will get the contract? Americans, no doubt. FJK couldn’t have made himself any clearer when he was complaining about Nicky Hager etc, he said, “They are anti-govt, anti-american.” That was straight out of the mouth of the PM of NZ. Someone should tell him not to let it slip like that.
I believe that the lack of critical re-evaluation of ANZAC day (and also the general role of war) comes down to a couple of things. First, there are two types of wars – the mythical “glorious” war in which we are all supposed to believe. This is the war of heroism, glory, adventure, and patriotism. Deaths are recorded in numbers. Men become divisions, battalions, brigades, etc. Battle jargon is advance, retreat, being pinned down, etc. Mutilated bodies and horrific wounds are simply termed as “casualties”. We get tales of how the generals do this and that and how they “won” a battle.
Then there is the real in-your-face war. This is about how men, women and children end up with both legs blown off, burned to death by incendiary devices, raped by rampaging soldiers, etc. About how people’s houses, jobs and livelihoods are destroyed. How people are permanently traumatised and left mental vegetables by the horrors they have experienced. How people are starved, tortured, imprisoned and murdered. That is what war is really about. The generals do not win battles, they take the credit for it but it is their men that win the battles with their own blood, sweat and tears.
Not surprisingly, this real aspect of war is not generally popular because it talks about the worst aspects of human nature – cruelty, sadism, greed and these make uncomfortable topics of conversation for people involved with the military services, indeed for anyone.
The second reason is more political. It is about being labelled unpatriotic if you question the establishment. By questioning why New Zealand got involved in eg. World War I, the Korean War, the Vietnam war you are being unpatriotic, you are a traitor (and probably also the worst thing possible – a Commie!). You are dishonouring the men who fought and died for YOUR freedom. They sacrificed their lives so you could live in peace today. When confronted by this, many people prefer to stay silent, least they should be labelled this way because no-one likes to be thought of as an unpatriotic ingrate.
The MSM seldom challenges such things, and if it does it does so in a very superficial way to make sure that no-one is likely to get offended. True, we do get occasional books and documentaries about people that have dared to tell their side of the story but often it is published after their death. It is also true that the nature of ANZAC day has slowly evolved over the years. I remember when a long-haired hippie-type person around 1969 or 70 once tried to put a wreath on a memorial in Wellington during an ANZAC day service. Some old retired military officer angrily picked up this wreath and threw it away, presumably horrified to think that war did not just involve the military fraternity and that it actually involved everyone.
Thankfully things have changed a bit, at least. ANZAC days services have become more about how we should never forget what happened so that we can help stop it happening again. But in reality that is just a side show – whilst they are saying this, the government is planning how to transport military personal to Iraq. When it all boils down to the basics – what the common people think about war means absolutely nothing to the political powers that direct the wars.
Although some like to think otherwise – ANZAC day is still more show casing the military than about the follies of war itself. There is still a myth present and many of us still want to believe it.
Key might as well handed people the white feather like those stupid judgemental women did in both wars,Key would never go himself and probably on ANZAC day he will sanctimoniously put a poppy wreath,on someones grave, it will just be a ceremony he has to attend, he has no conscience and no feeling. He dosnt relate the men and women as people he just uses them as pawns on a board .
Used to get angry about it, now I realise it’s just business in motion. If people truely have a personal ritual or attachment to ANZAC Day proceedings, they don’t need and won’t care about the hype.
The banner The Warehouse have spread across the outside of my local store pictures a group of hunters, sporting shotguns, possibly going out for a weekend, at dawn. I mean really. That’s the best silouette photo they could find? And apparently no has looked closely enough to notice, even though it’s starkly obvious. Laughable, but strangely apt. Eager minds will see anything they’re told.
Forget about it. Syrians now, Americans earlier; Five Eyes now, “Liberation” earlier. Atrocities and wars go hand in glove. No has or ever will coming out of a war smelling of roses and there isn’t or ever will be a “right side” to be on. Even the Christian god was backing both Germany and the Allies during WWII.
Forget about it, lest we remember, because then it’ll get too bad for business.
ANZAC Day is a time of remembrance for those who died in man made wars…many of them very young, many of them very innocent…and it is a time to remember those who returned…sometimes maimed and always psychologically changed for good or ill…it is a time also to remember the suffering of the bereaved ….who felt the loss of their loved ones both dead and living.
ANZAC is not a time for the glorification or advocation of war…many who returned hated war and would never support war again, even if they had supported it in the first place
…they saw the futility of war and the tragedy and immorality of war
It is this we should remember on ANZAC DAY
Hey excellent article Martyn. You took the words out of my mouth. It’s such a farce to be talking about Anzac Day, gathering at dawn to remember the dead and have learnt nothing from it – sending troops to Iraq. The incongruence is sickening.
From a ‘right winger’
Armed neutrality. The defence strategy NZ should of adopted
https://r1016132.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/swiss-armed-neutrality-the-defence-policy-nz-should-of-followed/
[…] Apart from siding with butchers and dictators who have helped create the new generation of Muslim fanaticism, it appears we are fighting to spy for torturers and the ability to hide how NZ soldiers die in battle. […]
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