ANZAC Day

Having had only two hours sleep last night (for no reason except that I couldn't get to sleep, although the 11pm coffee may have had something to do with it), I was awoken rather rudely by my alarm clock at 4.30am this morning. For some reason, I felt compelled this year (for the first time) to go to the ANZAC day dawn service at the National War Memorial in Canberra. Canberra had turned on its usual early morning freezer conditions, making the initial decision to get out of bed all the harder. Compounding my early morning, sleep deprived, anguish was the fact that I had also decided to ride my bike. This was because I had been told that crowds are usually pretty large, and parking can be tricky.

I managed to arrive just in time for the ceremony to begin. As I mentioned, this was my first dawn service, so I had no idea what to expect. In the end, it turned out to be pretty much as I guessed - a fairly simple, somber affair - but boy did the Canberrans come out in their droves for this one. An estimated crowd of 28,000 people apparently showed up - that is pretty incredible for a city the size of Canberra.

I do find the symbolism of ANZAC day a rather difficult thing to relate to, and I often struggle to resolve my personal anti-war views with the glorification of past conflicts that inevitably seems to resonate from these sorts of services. I am well aware that we are remembering those who have fallen, and I have no issue with this whatsoever. What I do have issues with is how many of the prayers and reflections given during ANZAC day services like this morning's, often draw an arbitrary moral line in the sand, such that any military action of Australia and its allies must surely have been justified, and therefore righteous. One of the prayers read out this morning actually asked God to bless all those troops fighting for Australia, and its allies - as if God actually recognises our military treaties with other countries. I found that line just a tad ridiculous.

The shame of all this is that I want to embrace this day as one for Australia. I want to cheer and support our ex-service men and women. I have no moral conflict thanking all those people who have protected our shores, nor celebrating the fine tradition of professionalism in the Australian armed forces. This, however, does not necessarily stretch to the decision makers who send our troops off to fight unjustified wars. I have a real problem with the way history is politicised, and re-written to invoke a false sense of patriotism and self-righteousness. The fact is, wars should not happen, and too often are motivated by very dubious ambitions. Young lives lost fighting unjustified wars are just tragedies, nothing else.

Despite my concerns with some aspects of this morning's ceremony, I will probably attend the dawn service in future years as well. I do support the essence of ANZAC day, and am happy to accept that the symbolism of the day is relevant to Australian culture, and forms part of our national identity. Most of all, I think the ANZAC motto, "Lest We Forget", is an important message to take from this day, and for this reason I am happy to embrace it, and participate in it.