Checking my mail this week, I found what looked like a glossy RSL pamphlet promoting ANZAC Day, its cover one big photo of a Digger, circa 1915, with more such old portraits inside.
I was all set to send a donation when I realised that it was in fact a bit of PR from the Federal Member for Latrobe, Jason Wood.
I suppose these days we’ve grown accustomed to our devious pollies cloaking their shameless deceits with our national flag, and cosying up to men and women in uniform for a bit of self promotion. I had hoped this Anzac Day might be above all that. But no, not for a the Howard government, who took us to war for the lies and misdeeds of a foreign power.
Still, by linking the Gallipolli tragedy with the current fiasco in Iraq, Mr Wood has at least hit one nail on the head, though I guess unintentionally. Both events are horrific disasters. Churchill, the polly primarily responsible for the former, resigned from the Admiralty in disgrace. One hopes that calls for the impeachment of the fraudulent US President Bush for the catastrophic consequences of illegally invading Iraq will meet with success.
As for our Prime Minister, John Howard has disgraced this nation and the troops serving in its defence by making Australia an accomplice to wholesale kidnapping (“redition”), imprisonment without trial, torture and war crimes.
Like Gallipolli, the “aim” of invading Iraq has been botched and overwhelmed by incompetence and blood.
In his pamphlet Mr Wood includes a form for us to send a “Message to the Troops”, saying “The Anzac Spirit forged on the beaches of Gallipoli in 1915 continues to this day in our Armed Forces, serving in our name, around the world."
Well, no Mr Wood, our troops in Iraq are actually serving in the name of an unhinged, lame-duck US President whose destructive legacy will take generations to repair.
As for my Message to the Troops? Lest We Forget!
- Details
- Cancelled Man