Stumbling over the Truth
Whether it was in the Second Boer War or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or any other execrable, avoidable conflict in between and beyond, it seems then the best way for us to truly honour those who paid the ultimate sacrifice is to both understand -- and then come to terms with -- the real reasons why our forbears were fighting, crying, bleeding and dying. It certainly was not in the cause of democracy, freedom, life, liberty, peace, love, understanding, human rights, and the pursuit of happiness. It never has been. It never will be! If we cannot come to terms with this long dormant reality, "Lest we Forget" becomes a meaningless refrain, a hollow, empty chant.
For Australians and New Zealanders alike, from this pivotal point onwards -- i.e. 2015 -- when it comes to both commemorating, extolling and embracing the 'virtues' of the ANZAC* tradition (as distinct from the myth), and bowing our heads every April 25 in solemn remembrance of our 'baptism of fire' as a nation at Anzac Cove (not to mention in the putrid, blood-drenched, interminable trenches cum graves along the Western Front) it now behooves everyone of us still -- young or old, veteran or non-veteran -- to come to grips with a fuller understanding of the real history behind the First World War and Britain's hitherto hidden, yet wholly reprehensible, role in planning and then triggering that conflict.
And since it is the aforementioned Churchill that is the most remembered -- and least deservedly revered -- of the Great War plotters, it seems apposite to include herein -- then 'riff on' -- a pricelessly pompous piece of Winstonian profundity, to wit: "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."
The duplicitous old blowhard should know! Truth be told, Churchill and his coterie of conspirators didn't so much as "stumble over the truth" before picking themselves up and "hurrying off as if nothing had happened"; they assassinated said truth with extreme and amoral prejudice, then buried it deep in the ground and did everything in their power to ensure that no-one -- in their own lifetimes and decades beyond -- would ever exhume what was in the hole.
They then went on to create their own reality and convince themselves and everyone else who would listen (of whom there was no shortage) there was no other reality than their own. With this in mind, we might paraphrase the aforementioned Henry Ford; for Churchill and his ilk -- along with their imperial heirs on either side of the Big Pond playing the Great Game as we speak -- one imagines it was, and still is, very much a case of, "you can have any version of history you like, as long as it's ours!"
Never mind the reality, [just] feel the myth!
There can be no doubt Docherty and Macgregor deserve our eternal gratitude for bringing this appalling -- and for many, inconvenient -- truth to our attention. Yet despite being published two years ago, all indications point to this book having all but been buried by the Western mainstream media, with negligible reviews forthcoming in that time. Consequently I fear their story will never reach that all important critical mass of folks that will be required to bring those still playing the Great Game of Empire to account. Until and unless that happens, we are doomed to keep repeating history, until such time as 'history' finally catches up with us and destroys us. In such an instance there will be no victors, just victims.
It is appropriate to finish off with another word about Gallipoli, an event that occupies a not dissimilar place in the consciousness of Australians and New Zealanders as does for Americans the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. In the separate article cited earlier, after noting that in Britain, New Zealand and Australia, Gallipoli has been turned into an "heroic-romantic myth", Docherty and Macgregor maintain it is a myth nonetheless "promoted by court historians and pliant journalists in order to hide the stark truth." Although the myth derives from Gallipoli, it goes way beyond that event. There is the unquestioning reverence for our military and our easy propensity to unstintingly celebrate our military history and those who made it.
Much of this 'reverence' though one suspects is often both feigned and strained, and appears the first and last refuge of too many people -- especially in the media and in political circles -- whose insight into our involvement in the various military conflicts is scant at best. And their knowledge of the reasons for why these conflicts erupted in the first instance, on what basis they have been conducted (by both sides), along with the political exigencies and economic realities that have been the true causes of these conflicts, one might argue is even less complete. As far as they are concerned, it seems here it may just be a case of, "never mind the reality, [just] 'feel' the myth"!
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