We need a day set aside to remind us that war is the ultimate human failure. This would be the day when we hear speeches about suffering and destruction of property and not about noble sacrifice. We would be reminded of the hacking coughs and trembling hands suffered by our returned soldiers in the decades following 1918. We would be reminded of the civilians who were firebombed in Tokyo and Dresden in 1945. We would be reminded of the four million Iraqi refugees now in Syria and Jordan and the landmines still maiming in South-East Asia. The list can go on. We would even be made aware that more American veterans of the Vietnam War have now committed suicide than were killed in that war. Anzac day is a day of delusion. It is a day of marches and bands and flags and talk of heroes by important people on podiums. We have created a day of celebration of nationhood when we need a day of recognition that war is nothing but the ultimate human failure.
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