"Celebrating" the ANZACs

[Bunk Moreland]

Is anybody else sick of it already and finding it wildly inappropriate.

These poor young naive blokes who never had a shot at life, sent to the other side of the world to die painfully and probably petrified, in no small part due to the incompetence of their own superiors.

It's well documented the courage and spirit they showed and that should obviously be remembered and admired.

But FFS its about remembrance and should be appropriately solemn IMO.

It's a commemoration, not a celebration which so many seem keen to turn it into.

I'm watching this afternoon and apparently the VRC and Channel 7 have sent the Melbourne Cup there as part of it's roadshow! And that ****wit who wanted to play the ANZAC Day footy game over there...

WTF?

It's not a party, it's not a celebration. Particularly at the very site of it. Remember the fallen appropriately.

 

[Doss]

Hmm. In some ways it's always surprised me that ANZAC Day is sold as the birth of Australian identity.

We were illegally invading another country.

I have nothing but sorrow for the poor buggers who were sent to their deaths, trying to fight their way up beaches and cliffs while being hopelessly outgunned and in an inferior position in a military sense. But why is that something to celebrate for Australia as a nation?

If anything, if we were to try and sell a military event as the being the 'birth of Australia as a modern nation', or other similar rhetoric, I'd rather it be Kokoda.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Hmm. In some ways it's always surprised me that ANZAC Day is sold as the birth of Australian identity.

We were illegally invading another country.

I have nothing but sorrow for the poor buggers who were sent to their deaths, trying to fight their way up beaches and cliffs while being hopelessly outgunned and in an inferior position in a military sense. But why is that something to celebrate for Australia as a nation?

If anything, if we were to try and sell a military event as the being the 'birth of Australia as a modern nation', or other similar rhetoric, I'd rather it be Kokoda.

I think it's due to being the first time after federation that we went overseas in major battle.

 

[Doss]

I think it's due to being the first time after federation that we went overseas in major battle.

Yeah, because mother country told us to.

Kokoda was actually about defending ourselves.

 

[Gough]

I worry that we seem to be selling a myth, rather than studying history and learning from it.

Yeah, because mother country told us to.

Kokoda was actually about defending ourselves.

WWII was also fought for an honourable cause, fascism had to be stopped, WWI was the dying gasp of the great colonial land grab of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

 

[Impunity!]

Hmm. In some ways it's always surprised me that ANZAC Day is sold as the birth of Australian identity.

We were illegally invading another country.

I have nothing but sorrow for the poor buggers who were sent to their deaths, trying to fight their way up beaches and cliffs while being hopelessly outgunned and in an inferior position in a military sense. But why is that something to celebrate for Australia as a nation?

If anything, if we were to try and sell a military event as the being the 'birth of Australia as a modern nation', or other similar rhetoric, I'd rather it be Kokoda.

How was it illegal?

 

[Doss]

How was it illegal?

Illegal is the wrong word. We were invading the sovereign territory of another nation as part of what was essentially nothing more than a colonial dick measuring contest.

 

[Impunity!]

Illegal is the wrong word. We were invading the sovereign territory of another nation as part of what was essentially nothing more than a colonial dick measuring contest.

Yeah I take your point.

We sure distracted the ottomans from ethnic cleansing those pesky assyrians though!

 

[edgie]

So many misconceptions too.
I'm over hearing the Pommy bashing about how they sat on a beach and drank tea whilst carelessly ordering our men to their certain deaths. Most of the higher up officer incompetence was just as true blue dinky di aussie as the blokes digging the trenches. It's an insult to those that died, that we remember it so wildly inaccurate, and learn nothing from it.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!

 

[edgie]

Here is some truth worth touching on about the ANZACS!

"During the trench warfare of the Gallipoli Campaign, Major Stephen Midgley of the Australian 5th Light Horse Regiment was widely known to use a sawn-off double barrelled shotgun while leading his troops, resulting in Turkish officers complaining that it was not a 'weapon of war' under international law after Midgley took one Turkish soldier's head "clean off his shoulders". Midgley was ordered by an Australian general to cease using his shotgun and switch to a conventional rifle and bayonet, to which the Major was "bitterly peeved".[4]"

 

[Doss]

Yeah I take your point.

We sure distracted the ottomans from ethnic cleansing those pesky assyrians though!

But hey, according to Turkey, that never happened!

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I didn't mean to debate what happened at the time with this thread. That's a history debate to be had.

It's more about the way the deaths of the young men is now celebrated rather than appropriately commemorated.

 

[Freofalcon]

But but, they died for our freedoms.

 

[ioppolo]

They sell it as 'celebrating our freedom'.

 

[KardiniaPark]

Do gooder board. You live your life now because great men fought for that right. They still do. OP must be a Uni student or a dickhead, most likely both.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Do gooder board. You live your life now because great men fought for that right. They still do. OP must be a Uni student or a dickhead, most likely both.

You clearly didn't even read the OP, dickhead.

You make one completely obvious point that I didn't contradict in anything I wrote.

It's about what happens now and how people, and particularly corporations, "mark" it.

My point is the ANZACs aren't being properly respected.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Respect them in the way you feel is appropriate, and don't worry too much about how others do it.

 

[King Elvis]

Respect them in the way you feel is appropriate, and don't worry too much about how others do it.

There is a novel idea.

People deliberately miss the point, and then bitch about it.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

It is a shame how few people use the day to learn about World War 1 or wars in general. It's become a nationalist day and politicians and the ADF love to cling to it (there's so many ADF commercials on the day) and blow money. You even have pubs trying to turn into a reason to go out drinking.

Do gooder board. You live your life now because great men fought for that right. They still do. OP must be a Uni student or a dickhead, most likely both.

Hi person I was just typing about.

 

[KardiniaPark]

You clearly didn't even read the OP, dickhead.

You make one completely obvious point that I didn't contradict in anything I wrote.

It's about what happens now and how people, and particularly corporations, "mark" it.

My point is the ANZACs aren't being properly respected.

What are you studying at Uni?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

It is a shame how few people use the day to learn about World War 1 or wars in general. It's become a nationalist day and politicians and the ADF love to cling to it (there's so many ADF commercials on the day) and blow money. You even have pubs trying to turn into a reason to go out drinking.



Hi person I was just typing about.

I don't really even care too much about the "nationalism" aspect of it. I recognise the role it played in shaping our nation (though I do think it's exaggerated at times).

It's more the "vibe" of what the day has become. It's become like a party and is used by corporations and business for promotions etc.

It's a solemn place, a solemn event, and I think it should be about remembrance of the tragic fate of the soldiers. Not a party. Not a promotional vehicle.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

What are you studying at Uni?

I haven't set foot on a uni campus in decades.

Using anti intellectualism to cover your own inability to take part in a conversation is tough to pull off at the best of times, let alone when you're aiming it at non intellectuals.

 

[little graham]

We sure distracted the ottomans from ethnic cleansing those pesky assyrians though!

If only someone distracted from us ethnically cleansing the aboriginals under the flaura and fauna act! Didn't cease until the stolen generation.

Our country has a distinct pattern when it comes to war. The ruling class has lied manipulated and exploited the general population every time.

 

[Impunity!]

Curse that MSM

 

[little graham]

Notice noone celebrates the boer war?. The ethnic cleansing we did to the South Africans was massive. This is a strange one, because when it came their turn to do it to the Xhosa and Zulu, we helped them.

When you collate this with why we fought ww 1&2? If its wrong the Turks and Germans ethnically cleansed, that us dissenters should thus shut up and honor the dead. Then surely its wrong for us to ethnically cleanse?

The Australian population was so dumbed down , that it wasn't until the free love movement of the 60's was a liberal gov forced to draft Australians to fight European wars. If you read your history, the union movement were the ones looking out for our exploited population in ww1 and ww2. It was lab who stopped conscription to Vietnam.