A half-mile up the street from my place, there's a busy bus interchange and railway station, a hub for three rail lines, bordered by a huge shopping mall complex on one side, and on the other by a few dozen shops that run each side of the old two-lane Pacific Highway, now a secondary road bypassed years ago by drivers preferring the freeway between Sydney and the northern coastal port town of Newcastle.
There, on a beautifully maintained grassy square, sits a stone war memorial, a cenotaph, engraved with the names of hundreds of men long since dead. It's always there, sometimes with flowers left at the base, in all its silent, imperial-looking splendour, right opposite the traffic lights where I turn each day onto the old highway for the trip into town after dropping off my youngest daughter in her very prim and proper English-looking school uniform.
Underneath the engraved bronze plaques, on the side that you can see, are the names of a dozen or so battlefields from WWI and WWII - now fallen deadly quiet, and peaceful resting places for the Australians who lost their lives so far from home. Apart from the WWI human meat-grinder battles at Gallipoli, on the Dardanelles peninsula of modern-day Turkey, the slaughterhouses of the Western Front (France and Belgium), and the WWII jungle battles in New Guinea, the names of the campaigns are only vaguely familiar even to me, and would be unknown to most Americans, except for the history buffs: Salonika, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia (Iraq), etc ...
On the weekend, with Anzac Day approaching, and noticing that wreaths had been left in the rain at its base, I decided to wander up there and look at the other three sides of the memorial. Here, add Korea and Vietnam and a couple of little-known British wars of the post-war modern era, too, in Malaya and Borneo. Another side simply says "Other conflicts'', and would doubtless include The Sudan and The Boer War (Britain's 19th-century Vietnam) and those in which we're currently embroiled. Those honoured are all men from the local Shire. Many were just boys. The sandstone structure itself is unremarkable, and probably looks like the many thousands of other memorials you'd see across towns, cities and villages all over Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Britain, Africa, even Ireland, the Caribbean, parts of south-east Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.
Mostly, too, they'd be listing many of the same conflicts. I know for a fact there are memorials at villages across India to the many hundreds of Indian Army soldiers who died fighting a British war in Iraq (sadly, much like that of America's today) in the 1920s and 30s. Which is also what got me thinking a while back: why are these all "foreign'' wars, and is it just this and a common language that binds us, and keeps us close? Are we really all just engaged in one seemingly never-ending, blundering imperialistic adventure, Marks I and II, as our enemies would have us believe? So, is it just that and if not, then what is it that, despite all our obvious differences, makes us all so remarkably similar?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Good read, Stan. When you live in the middle of history's vortex, like I do, it is a bit hard to step back and look "objectively" at events.
The clash of civilizations is very clear to me - Islamo-nazis on the one side a satanic cult that has seized control of Islam and made it a nightmare of murder, influenced itself by a satanic cult that perpetrated genocide in Europe 60 years ago, on the one side - and an unsure people who are not really used to being being vicious fighters on the other. It's all very close to home. Our doctor's daughter was killed in a terror attack in Jerusalem, for example.
On Sunday night at patrol at the edge of Jerusalem, I was "breaking in" a new volunteer, a young woman. After I struggled in Hebrew (after 5½ years, it is still a struggle) to explain to her, a native speaker, the basic duties, she let on that she had been an intelligence officer, and was familiar with all that I had been explaining I had spent a good fifteen minutes or more for nothing! What was worse, she spoke perfect (American) English!!!
My commander in this unit is an Aussie, a Sidneysider. Yesterday, as part of the commemorations for Israel's Remembrance Day for the Fallen Heroes of Israel, my unit paraded from Zion Square to Saffra Square, where the Municipality has its headquarters. The majority of this unit is either Americans, Russians with almost half native Israelis. The Israelis command, and most of them have been reservists in the IDF, like the Aussie from Sidney, Major Bob, the lone Anglo with serious rank. Some of the Americans had served in the armed forces of the United States. The Russians had all served in the military of the USSR.
We weren't the only ones to parade down the Jaffa Road yesterday. There were a bunch of high-schoolers and a small detachment from the Giv'ati Brigade, wearing olive green and purple berets.
When the column was called to stand to attention at Saffra Square to be reviewed by Mayor Lupolianski, you could tell the difference between the Giv'ati detachment, standing at attention with their M16's presented, the high schoolers, who tried to imitate the Giv'ati detachment, the volunteer policemen, and the Aussie who stood at the head of our ranks, Major Bob from Sidney.
While most of us did things in American style, which is a tad more informal than the British, Major Bob was all spit and polish. Coming to attention was done with a neat stamp of the left foot, as was returning to an "at ease" stance. Even being released from the column to break ranks came with a neat right face maneuver, executed in the British style - again with a sharp stamp downward of the left foot. I couldn't help but notice the shine on Major Bob's shoes. Had I wanted to, I could have shaved by their reflection.
I realize this is nothing new to all of you with a background of British training in marching up and down a hill. But it still impresses me.
2 - STM
Ruvy wrote: "I realize this is nothing new to all of you with a background of British training in marching up and down a hill. But it still impresses me."
Yes, just like the Grand Old Duke of York, they DID actually march us and down the hill, then marched us back up and marched us down again ... over and over, and it could never be less than perfect. Endless hours were spent perfecting it.
I asked my father, a veteran of the British Army, why he thought we needed to do all that stuff and he just said "Son, soldiers need to LOOK like soldiers". Which really didn't answer my question at all.
I used to heat up my boot polish with a candle for a near-reflective shine, but my old man showed me how to get an even better shine with layers of spit and polish applied in tiny circles, left for a few hours, or better still overnight, before wiping off. You would have to carry a polishing cloth with you during the day and hope no-one stood on your boots.
In those days, the RAAF seemed to have inherited the legacy of the RAF, which pre-WWII ran on spit-and-polish and "bull". Standing at ease was as much effort as standing at attention.
I must say though Ruve, I did tire of it quickly. But like you, I still like watching them.
Major Bob sounds like good bloke! Tell him to have a beer for me on Anzac Day.
3 - troll
unless you humans can come up with an option to bombs and bullets and bullshit to solve this clash of civilizations you are surely and truly fucked
4 - S.T.M
I feel the same way troll, but it probably means we are well and truly buggered then. The other mob aren't playing by the rules. They don't want to talk - they just want to blow the shit out of us. The sooner we face up to that, the better.
5 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
troll,
"You humans?"
Ahem!!
You can use any moniker you wish and call yourself Mother Goose if you desire. But don't imagine that merely because you call yourself Mother Goose, you'll lay eggs - golden or otherwise - other than your last rather lame comment, a goose egg, if I ever saw one.
A brief story for you. Two Jews, Yehuda Magnes and Martin Buber, had a running correspondence with the rising Indian leader of independence, Mohandas K. Gandhi. This was around 1937-38.
This correspondence was to be far more costly than the pice or mils spent in sending the letters back and forth from India to the Land of Israel.
Magnes became convinced that he ought to follow a path of non-violence. As president of Hebrew University in 1948, he turned down offers of the Haganá for protective trucks for the medical convoys going to and from Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus, the main treatment hospital in 1948 Jerusalem. On 13 April, 1948, one such convoy was bombed by Arabs near Sheikh Jarrah, on the road to Mt. Scopus. Seventy eight doctors and nurses were murdered that day, and British authorities kept the Haganá away so that the Arabs could complete the massacre.
Stan Denham is playful in his contempt for the British. I'm not. They are still the same deceitful bastards now that they were in 1948.
Don't tell me about needing to find peace. Tell the Arabs who want us to die and scream it from the muezzins every Friday. More importantly, tell it to the shits who command British society, from the royals who wear Nazi uniforms down to the teachers who kiss the asses of the Islamo-nazis in Britain by refusing to teach about the evils of the Nazi murder of 6,000,000 of my people, not to mention 5,500,000 others in death camps. Tell it to the BBC also.
I do not need to know.
In the Traveller's Prayer, which I recite every time I leave town, it says, in part;
"May it be the Will of of our G-d and the G-d of our fathers to cause us to walk in peace, to guide our steps in peace, to lead us in peace and return us in peace..."
That doesn't mean that the driver travels unarmed on what can be a dangerous road.
Get the picture?
6 - troll
I'm with you Stan - 'buggered' it is as peace makers are few and far between on both sides
Ruvy - we can come up with endless examples of man's inhumanity to man but none alone or en mass will justify your acceptance of violence as the correct response
7 - Clavos
Beautiful writing, Stan.
I can't say much more than that; it would be presumptuous of me.
I asked my father, a veteran of the British Army, why he thought we needed to do all that stuff and he just said "Son, soldiers need to LOOK like soldiers". Which really didn't answer my question at all.
Yes, it did. A soldier's first, and most important training, both for the mission, and his own survival, is discipline.
I'm glad you will honor the brave Australian soldiers on Anzac Day. I will too, in my thoughts.
I know they deserve it.
8 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"we can come up with endless examples of man's inhumanity to man but none alone or en mass will justify your acceptance of violence as the correct response.
troll,
After the Oslo accords were signed, and the Arabs pursued terror in Israel, YitzHak Rabin came up with the phrase "sacrifices for peace" to describe those who died in the terror incidents. Somehow, your comment above has the same ring as Rabin's...
And it's disgusting.
I do not believe in "sacrifices for peace." There is no such thing. Either you defend your homeland and crush those who would murder you, or you die. I intend to live, and if that doesn't have YOUR moral approval, that's just too damned bad. I answer to G-d, not you.
9 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Major Bob sounds like good bloke! Tell him to have a beer for me on Anzac Day.
Stan,
As far as blokes go, he is top shelf. I sent him your article, along with your good wishes. He is presently working on a doctorate on media coverage in the Middle East. He may want to contact you at some point - you appear to have some small connection with the media.
10 - troll
Ruvy - yup - you will answer to your god and I suspect that in your final moment he's gonna kick the shit out of you for being so dense and causing the destruction of so much of his handy work
you intend to live you say - ?
then you'd best work on turning the page - changing the paradigm - or what ever you want to call the process - toward non-violent conflict resolution
the logical result of your acceptance of violence as the way forward will be the destruction of all that you hold dear...
the prospect of which I find disgusting myself
11 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Boy, you are thick, troll.
The whole point of the story in comment #5 is that Yehuda Magnes did exactly what YOU advised me to do for exactly the same reasons. It cost the lives of 78 men and women, and all of the descendants they might have had.
I can't second-guess the Almighty, but I imagine that if a Haganá team had gone out checking the road, the massacre that the Arabs perpetrated that day might well have not happened. They didn't because the so-called "peace-maker" Magnes ignored Arab threats. Magnes had much blood on his hands because he believed what Gandhi said, instead of the Haganá.
The boys at Hebrew U. and the secular government here is careful to sweep all that shit under the rug - but some of us are a little more thorough than others in looking under the official rugs here. And G-d sees through rugs... and judges accordingly.
12 - troll
with all due respect to the author -
I suggest that readers remember that war is a matter of individual free will...and request that they question the glorification of militarism embedded in this article
don't let anyone tell you who to kill - that's a personal decision
13 - troll
Ruvy - I understood your tale both times - but so what - ?
you approach will cost the lives of millions
14 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Right now, I do not have an approach...
Your fleet sits off of Iran ready to strike, HizbAllah arms and arms, and a European fleet sits off of Lebanon, likely with the purpose of invading here UPON THE INVITATION OF THE "ISRAELI" GOV'T.
Waiting is...
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
And war looms on the horizon, troll. Time for smart goats and trolls to get off the bridge.
Like I told you, if you are indeed a farrier, buy some extra iron, nails, generators. Oh yeah, add a troy scale so that when folks weigh out gold to pay you, you have a way to charge them for your services.
16 - troll
Ruvy - the situation that you describe makes it imperative that individuals step back and consider the consequences of their actions
and your approach consistently has been to preach hatred for a 'non-people' and the rationality of violence up to and including the use of atomics against your enemies
17 - Baronius
Troll, I don't think this article glorifies militarism at all. Quite the opposite. Stan criticizes his own youthful misunderstanding of militarism. As an adult, he sees the need for the military, which is different than militarism. He points this out quite well. In fact, I don't see how someone could read this article and not understand the difference.
18 - alessandro Nicolo
It doesn't glorify militarism.
We have choice today. They didn't. We luckily get to sit, wonder, argue about all sorts of things today. Not back then. Of course many wanted to surf but they made the ultimate sacrifice that's why remember.
On my own blog I honored the Canadian soliders who took Vimy Ridge for this reason. Yet, some kid leaves a note telling me I glorified war. They just don't get it.
19 - troll
Baronius - the glorification of militarism in the article that I refer to is not that of cowboy hero fantasies but rather that of its sad inevitability as the solution to the looming next chapter in the clash of civilizations
the author says in essence honor those who have and will kill (albeit reluctantly) for 'our' cause
I say the future depends on those who refuse to do so and seek alternatives to violence
20 - troll
oh - and alessandro -
have you considered the proposition that it is you who blinded by sentimental fatalism has missed the point - ?
21 - Baronius
Troll, maybe it is fatalism. I don't think so, but you could argue that point. You can't argue that it's militarism.
22 - troll
Baronious I do understand your point - but I would call the honoring of and dependence on military solutions past and present 'militarism'
23 - STM
Troll: I am not glorifying militarism here. Far from it. I do NOT want my country to be at war for forever and a day, which is how it feels at the moment. I would always go the preferred option: talking it out.
I don't think any of those men whose names appear on that memorial would have chosen to throw away their lives.
But talk, sadly, is cheap - and here's a thought: imagine the world today with Nazi Germany and militaristic Imperial Japan the two main powers.
Doesn't bear thinking about, does it? Like all evil and misguided ideologies, both were consigned to the dustbin (trash can?) of history where they belong.
It would have been nice for that to happen without anyone losing their lives, but sadly, that wasn't possible.
And Ruvy might have a thing or two to say about those first named.
24 - alessandro Nicolo
"have you considered the proposition that it is you who blinded by sentimental fatalism has missed the point"
Yes, I have and I don't buy it. I'm not blinded by anything. I'm no nationalist. Give me a break. I will honor them and will make no apologies for it. Poor us normal folk always blinded. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
I've met and talked with too many soldiers to think otherwise. Because war is evil we have to forget the men and women who served? It makes no sense because logically we loathe war to ignore its reality. I've been to the ceremonies in Dieppe. It's not only about militarism. It simply is not. They gained their FREEDOM. Sounds jingoistic to us pampered brats but these people take that stuff very seriously. Don't blame them.
Again, there is no glorification here. I think it's pretty clear that no one here would ever claim war is good - though there have been many splendid wars where the opressed managed to gain their freedom - but we are able to temper it with some realism. I happen to appreciate, for example, that hockey, football and baseball players went over to fight for what they believed in. My grandfather said it simply: " We knew what was at stake. It was so clear to us." I don't know if they were suckered but I do know they had a clear conscious.
What the heck do we believe in? Everything is cynically deemed "so-called" now. We're a bunch of talkers who want to get our fingers manicured.
I'm not sure there's a clash of civilizations. More a clash of modernity versus tradtionalism; Of rural versus urban.
So try not to be presumptuous, Troll. I've thought this long hard and to be frank it really isn't all that hard to understand.
And you know what else? Thanks to this article I stand by the Aussie's too.
25 - alessandro Nicolo
Spelling corrections: conscience (not concious) and oppressed (not opressed). Sorry.