ANZAC Day
Friday, April 25, 2008

Cheers and thank you to our friends and families on the flip side of our little blue orb for your sacrifice and devotion so long ago.

ANZAC Day reminds us of those intrepid souls who did what they were asked, and plunged headlong into the chaos of war. Faded photos and the handwritten script of a different age tell parts of their stories, but we must be mindful of the lens of history. They - along with hundreds of thousands of others from around the globe - believed that they fought and died not for war but for peace.

In our post-modern age it's too easy to condemn the notions of a "last war," or a lasting peace as quaint and antiquated. We can never allow that to happen. But first we need to agree that peace is real, achievable, and worthy of pursuit.

Then - for those that went before us, and for those who will follow - we need to stop killing each other once and for all.

Labels: ,

Anzac Day
Saturday, April 24, 2004

At dawn on April 25, 1915 soldiers from Australia and New Zealand landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was the beginning of one of the bloodiest battles in modern human history.

While our allies in the South Pacific remember those who gave their lives so long ago, we should consider the sacrifices being made by our own service members today.

Anzac Day is more than a day of remembrance; it is also a day of reflection. What is the nature of war? How does it come to be? Can it be avoided? And if not, can a war ever be truly won?

In this consideration we must be mindful of our history. Is our current situation in Iraq comparable to Vietnam as some claim? Perhaps, but I think the Bush Administration's broader global, generational war on terror is much more like World War I than any conflict since.

Terrorists - both state sponsored and otherwise - have attacked nations, and our nations have responded in the only way they know how. The aftermath of World War I saw the Middle East reshaped by the West; Something the Bush Administration would very much like to see happen again. But at what cost?

As our troops are fighting and dying today - nearly a century after "the war to end all wars" - are we as a race any closer to knowing the peace our ancestors thought they were fighting for?

Labels: ,

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."

RECENT LABELS

    MOST ACTIVE LABELS

      ALL LABELS