IF the call came today, would you answer it?
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On this day, 100 years ago, the patriotic pressure was on. Australia was in the final days of its wartime innocence.
War was still a mighty thing, and our boys were going to show them what’s what.
Ironically, our boys did show them what’s what, and died doing it.
As our true feelings for our country – already a patchwork of nationalities and cultures – were tested, the answer came back to us in a wave of blood.
We are not British. We are not just a “Dominion”. We are Australian, and we are proud of it.
One hundred years later, that battle in Turkey and its horrific circumstances still symbolises our own nationality to us.
There were examples of our humour, our bravery, our loyalty to our friends, our determination.
We stuck it out.
That foreign country honours our Diggers to this day.
Part of what lies at the heart of our love for the Anzacs is our absolute sadness at the slaughter those men were sent to, but another part is that bottom-of-the-heart decency those men displayed. Even while fulfilling their “patriotic duty” of killing to gain just metres of ground, they showed honour.
We love and we crave that decency, that honour, as our national identity.
Knowing what we know now, we can only continue to pay tribute to those who have served overseas since that time – many are serving today.
War is no show. It is not the banners and flags event we once thought it to be.
While we hope that we are never again tested to the point where there is pressure on every man of fighting age to join the campaign, we can all – men and women – embody that spirit of decency in the way we live our peacetime lives.
On Saturday, it’s time to remember our country’s loss of innocence, and the birth of a new Australian era.
Lest we forget.