Hazoo for war

I am sitting here watching The Longest Day, which may or may not be "the greatest war film ever." I don't want to enter that debate (I prefer The Thin Red Line), but I do want to say one thing - war sucks. Stop it.

Now I'm not prone to much emotion, but I do know that I get quite emotional when I see scenes, albeit in pseudo-historical-documentary films, of people dying pointlessly and painfully in battle. There is nothing glorious in war, there is little heroism, there is not much to be celebrated - there is just a lot of needless death as far as I can see.

Today is Australia's national day of rememberance for those who served and died in wartime - known as ANZAC Day. I am never going to look at an ex-serviceman and tell him or her that they should not have fought and I am not grateful for their actions - that would be both wrong and disrespectful. But I am also never going to be thankful that world leaders allowed affairs to get to such a low point that they believed that only the death of millions of their citizens and citizens of other countries could solve their crises. That is something to be deplored, not applauded.

I don't like war.

.e.

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Update 1:30pm Mon 25th

I have just watched the dawn service from Gallipoli. Speakers from both Australia and New Zealand, including the Chief of New Zealand's Defence Force our respective Prime Ministers, said some intriguing things. They said that war was not grand etc., but some went on to say that Gallipoli and other aspects of war represented the highest levels of military incompetence and national subservience to Britain. I'm not sure if I've heard that kind of talk from officaldom before. It intrigues me. I will post links to transcripts when and if I can find them.