Remembering Anzac Day
Jules Crittenden has an outstanding post on his site reminding us, “April 25 is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand, marking the landings at Gallipoli in 1915 and the disastrous campaign there. Churchill’s idea for a second front went badly wrong, and he ended up resigning as First Lord of the Admiralty.”
I’ve been to the Anzac Memorial in Sydney, and it’s quite a site — an appropriate honor to the men who proved their metal and demonstrated their courage in one of the bloodiest battles in history.
Over the last hundred years, Australia has arguably been our best ally. And Crittenden recounts how they’ve stood up to do the hard work when almost no one else would.
Today, this small nation of 20 million on the other side of the world, with total air, land and sea forces of about 50,000, puts many nations to shame with its willingness to engage. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again. Timor and the Marshalls. As Foreign Minister Alexander Downer put it several years ago, Australia is not subject to the popular multinationalism of the lowest common denominator, but has stepped up to play its role.
Crittenden then presents a number of first person account of the battle that are well worth reading.
Read the whole thing here.
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