The rest of us can only laugh at Ted Lapkin (Opinion, 26/4) defending the morality of soldiering by citing his own combat experience in an army that has been occupying its neighbour's country for decades, in defiance of the UN and international law. An army that was created out of militias that ethnically cleansed using terror, and continues to tacitly encourage and openly condone its soldiers humiliating, stealing the property of and murdering unarmed civilians. Ted, you argue Michael Leunig's point far more compellingly than he did. Gordon Drennan, Burton, SA =====================
Militarism is not the same as resistance
Ted Lapkin, recognising that people sometimes have to resist oppression by force is one thing and militarism is quite another. Leunig also would seem to recognise this distinction as he spoke favourably of the Eureka insurgents. The difference between the Eureka miners and the soldiers who fought them is that the miners were reluctantly taking up arms because they thought the cause required it; the soldiers were trained killers who were following orders. Militarism is the ideology that glorifies the trained killer who follows orders.
Sometimes the orders are to fight against an oppressor, to be sure, just as they are sometimes to drop firebombs on children. But wherever military force seems to be "solving" a problem it is wise to look closely - usually one will find that it was reliance on military force that created the problem in the first place and virtually always one will find that its present use is leaving a legacy of future killing. Iraq springs to mind. So does Israel, Ted.
Yes, our world is imperfect and sometimes the least bad option is still pretty ugly. Maybe Ted is right to say that it is not always wrong to kill civilians in a good cause. Osama bin Laden certainly agrees.
Why is it an "unfortunate necessity" or a "mistake" when our soldiers kill civilians but simply crime when others do the same, however lofty their intentions?
Militarists have one answer to that question, which they enforce so far as they dare. "Shut up or I will kill you."
And Anzac Day? A festival to glorify militarism. That was clear to me as a six-year-old and is just as clear now. Jeremy Dixon, North Carlton
