The ghost of the late Harry Patch, “The Last Fighting Tommy”, sits on my shoulder when I contemplate our annual observance of ANZAC day. Harry died aged 111, having seen his mates blown to pieces in the trenches of Ypres in World War 1.
At the age of 100, he stated in his autobiography “ "politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder".
In all the talk of “heroes” and “sacrifices” it is too easy to forget the role played by the Powers That Be in forcing warfare upon conscripts. Guns fired in salute remind me that guns were also fired in execution of those who lost their nerve in the face of such brutality, unable to cope with what was being done to their humanity.
If the first casualty of war is the truth, then certainly the second is the Image of God in each person. It is salutary to remind ourselves that any state has a vested interest in the hagiography of death when speaking of the fallen as “our glorious dead”.
Ian Render, priest, and Local Shared Ministry Enabler
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