As far as am aware Gallipoli marked a turning point.
No longer we as Australians were beholden to British Rule. After the failed Gallipoli campaign, our soldiers slowly decided that we had a different attitude.
Yup, after Gallipoli, the survivors were sent to the Western Front, France, in 1915.
At some point our Commanders insisted on "consultation" not "Orders" from anyone else.
John Monash might have had some input in that.
We are a peculiar lot. As far as I am aware.. dingbat Aussies made more breakthroughs on that 1915-19 front than any other hidebound concepts of warfare.
Am not a historian so 1939-45 is not my field. (heh)
These days .. am pleased to see that our troops are still operating in danger zones, and under their own Command structure. (so many stories, so many stories)..
and NO, am not involved, and have no "inside" knowlege.
What i will say though, is that we need our troops in conflict zones. How else to train the Generals for the next conflict.
Who knows where or when that will happen, but we need the next generation to understand what shooty shooty bullets, and lost legs explosives really mean to a military Commander.
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As a child I read Russell Braddon's memoir of surviving the Japanese, The Naked Island and it sank deep into my psyche. My father (who I never knew though I met him when I was 50) signed up in the Army aged 18 and came back after the war avoiding capture but weakened by malaria and hunger all the same.
I'm proud of Australian forces but I would prefer to think of war as something historical that only idiots fight now. I cannot see any government as trustworthy enough to fight for. The only reason Britons would need to defend themselves today is on account of our Prime Minister's stupid alliance with America's stupid President.
I think being patriotic is completely out of date. We are just a small world and all are my brothers.
We should study war no more.
But Americans (and many others) are as bat shit crazy as Aussies so I suppose they will go on.
It's stupid because they make all of us a little more crazy. If there wasn't any wars your mind would not be so bothered. Neither would mine.
Might do Americans good to be aware of how you think of us BBC. If polls mean anything, you can no longer simply say "americans are" even as a stand-in for "the majority of americans are" Our leadership is batshit crazy or maybe even worse, they may have understood and intended all the consequences of their "deciding"...but as of late, they have to veto antiwar measures and ignore protests. I just hope that means things will actually change.
As Davo tells me, Aussies in Iraq are now being targeted.
I think we have had quite enough foot dragging and excuses for not getting all our troops back home and putting our own countries in better order.
Be nice if we lived in a "Perfect World", I guess.
Nothing to whinge about .. heh.
Watched a doco last night about the effect of the Gulf Stream on climate, especially the English and Northern European climate. Meltwater from the Greenland Icecap will cause the Stream to cease .. probably very soon (one prediction is 2010) and the ramifications for "civilisation" as we know it will be catastrophic .. so worries about any wars in the Middle East will become very small bikkies.
It is, I guess, a bit sad that the three "Leaders" of the so-called "First World" have ignored warnings about it in favour of petty wars.
I do, however, have every confidence that human beings will survive .. somewhere, somehow.
Whether we learn anything by it all will be a moot point, though.
A majority of Americans now feel cheated and swindled by our Dictator in Chief. People drive around with bumper stickers that say "01-19-08: Bush's last day."
I understand why America is in Iraq, it is a land full of bat shit crazy christians with a bat shit crazy christian president.
I don't understand why the Aussies are there, or anyone else for that matter.
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