On the original Armistice Day in 1918, there was rejoicing at the return of peace as well as the grief, sadness and horror at the appalling human cost of World War 1 – “The War to End Wars”.
Since that time the techniques for damaging and destroying human lives have “progressed” to their current, devastating level. In the Middle East about 70% of the casualties are civilian women and children – an indication of how the nature of war has changed as the technology of war has“advanced”.
In the words of Smedley Butler “War is a Racket”, that mainly serves the interests of an elite within the Military Industrial Complex. The AUKUS project appears to be premised on the assumption that Australia will, sooner or later, find itself engaging in war again, this time against China.
The wars that Australia has joined have brought little benefit to the nation. The aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan damaged the nation’s international standing. Meanwhile the cost of these wars, in terms of the human lives affected, has risen to catastrophic proportions.
Of course lives lost or damaged (civilian as well as military) should be remembered and honoured. But those lives should also remind us that war is a dreadful scourge that is avoidable and never inevitable.
For these reasons peace activists ask those in power “Bring US Peace!”.
This is why, on this day last week, we said:-
“HONOUR THE WAR DEAD by
ENDING WAR!”
Marrickville Peace Group, 11/11/23
“Dulce Et Decorum Est”
(or ‘The Old Lie’)
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime. –
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, –
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: “Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori”.
(Wilfred Owen was killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre, just one week before WW1 ended.)
For more on this topic, P&I recommends:
Nick Deane is an ex-public servant with a degree in Sociology. He is a member of the co-ordinating committee of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) and convenor of the Marrickville Peace Group.
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