ANZAC Day as a Day for Peace

ANZAC Day can be an emotional time of year, as Australians and New Zealanders honour those who fell in war and those who survived and returned to be with us.

My great uncle Ernie survived Gallipoli, went on to receive a bayonet in the neck in France and died in England.

Former Prime Minister John Howard actively promoted ANZAC Day as a national day for all Australians. If “all” is to be inclusive, then this needs to include those who stood their ground for peace, unless they are being officially declared criminally unAustralian.

When my number came up for the Vietnam War, I held a religious conviction that forced me to make a stand as a pacifist and conscientious objector, went to court, avoided jail and received an exemption from military service.

By the Australian Government bringing attention to ANZAC Day as a national day for all Australians, attention has also been drawn to how all Australians can participate, including those who have declared themselves conscientious objectors when drafted to serve in the Vietnam War.

There are many Australians who would make such a stand now on various grounds, if compulsory national service were to be revived.

In the light of the failure to find any weapons of mass-destruction in Iraq, one may wonder if the Howard Government’s promotion of ANZAC Day was more about creating a smoke screen to fudge the truth, that this war was essentially illegal and has led to a monstrous civilian death toll, an unbelievable number of refugees and has served to sweep Christians out of Iraq?

If ANZAC Day could include an emphasis on peace, this may serve to bring greater public scrutiny to Government decisions to send young Australians to war in the service of another nation’s Realpolitik as if we were a vassal state.

It is now bleeding obvious that the reasons for going to war in Iraq were heavily concocted, especially when there was work to be finished in Afghanistan and as a consequence, we appear to be trapped in a Vietnam style quagmire.

If we had not taken our eye off the ball in Afghanistan to run off and invade Iraq, would we still be sending young Australians into the mountains to fight and die there, or return home with permanent injuries?

We should honour those who serve our nation. Should we also honour those who make a stand for peace and view soldiers as peace-workers who serve to achieve peace and the end of war? If we can, then ANZAC Day may be seen as a national day with an emphasis on peace rather than war.