Some thoughts on Anzac Day, 2024.first of all thanks to...

Some thoughts on Anzac Day, 2024.

first of all thanks to @moorookamick for opening the discussion with a pertinent question given the changing demography of Australia.

I'm on holidays in HCMC and write from district 1, aka Saigon.

i've had no problems at times over the past decade or so attending the dawn service at the Australian embassy in Phnom Penh to mark Anzac Day, our most solemn national day.

In the company of others, reflecting on the futility of war, except when it wasn't. Australian forces never invaded Cambodia.

this year in HCMC, Australia and New Zealand held a dawn service at the British consulate.

I thought long and hard about attending but couldn't muster the enthusiasm required to mark Australia's involvement in overseas wars.

Did i need or want to participate in a service in part to mark Australia's militarism being held in a country that never threatened Australia but was invaded and occupied by Australian forces anyway during the American war.

then and since then, Australia has taken war to a number of countries that never threatened us.

then and since then, Australian govts haven't been able to articulate to our armed forces incountry who the actual enemy is.

it's important to log this: Australian govts have sent our armed forces to fight and die in foreign fields without being able to define the enemy.

it's why Anzac day commemorations must also include holding govt to account, as well as the sacrifice and service of individuals.

if we don't hold govt to account for their war idiocies and barbarism on Anzac Day, when do we.

It's an element of the respect for those who served and for those who died to ask questions such as why and how. Without such questions, there is no respect.