Victory in the Pacific

Australia celebrated the 60th anniversary of 'Victory in the Pacific' (the end of the WW II) last weekend. It was a grand affair with Veterans honoured and nostalgic memories of the rousing return of the victors shared with the generation born after the war.

Victory is such a sweet thing, you get to write the history. You get to laud the bravery of your soldiers while happily forgetting the suffering of the thwarted in the battlefield. Well! It is not the soldiers fault. It is war. It is war that I deplore.

I would have been delighted if amidst all the cheering and back-patting we spent a minute, just a minute to think about the pain and suffering of war. It is nice to teach the younger generation of your gallant victory, no doubt. But the lesson?

Is it sufficient to brag, 'We won and they lost'. Is there not a responsibility to urge to stop all war. Peace. Peace is the lesson. Teach them peace, the ones who haven't seen war. The ones incapable of comprehending the cruelty of war. The ones who think it is cool to fly a F-18, zoom past the sound barrier, drop a bomb accurate to within a meter and congratulate themselves for a job done well- a kill in one. The ones who think war is a terribly exciting new computer game with realistic graphics and sound-effects.

(Incidentally I was watching a documentary yesterday about how the Pentagon uses 3-D War Games, specially designed for the Pentagon, replete with Iraqi streets, Mosques and even 'terrorists' swearing in Arabic to train its soldiers for the war in Iraq. No kidding!).

Peace! Peace! Peace!