Lest we forget
Posted on Monday 26th April 2010
Yesterday we chanced the rain to see the ANZAC Day march. After all the veterans, currently serving, and relatives of the fallen had paraded past, we stayed on for the memorial service.
On the walk home we talked about the significance of commemorating lost servicemen and the lessons to be learnt. One of the key saying from such services, an excerpt from “From The Fallen” by Laurence Binyon, goes:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
It is usually then followed by the title of this post. And yet little changes. We remember their sacrifice on an individual basis, but not what they died for.
After the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles crippled Germany to the extent that allowed for the rise of Fascism and the dominance of Hitler. After the Second World War, failed East-West relationships paved the way for decades of proxy Cold War conflicts. At one point, the UK and US governments funded and equipped Saddam Hussein during the Iraq-Iran War. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the CIA backed the Taliban. And yet, those same previous allies were subsequently labelled enemies and we went to war to remove them.
Clearly we have learnt very little from prior conflicts and meddling in the affairs of other countries. How many more people on both sides, and the innocents caught in the cross-fire, need to die before insight occurs?
Therein lies the difference between the sentiments of a poet and those of governments. It also shows the the true power educated democratic societies hold over their governments in the realms of foreign policy – very little.
There’s an excellent song called ‘And the band played waltzing matilda’ sung from the P.o.v. of an Australian soldier who serves in WW1 who in the final verse says ‘the young folk ask what are they marching for – and I ask myself the same question.’
Foreign policy based on ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ is disastrous, and both the UK and US governments have to learn this. Still.