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Lone Pine AWM A02025

It has been 100 years since our great grandfathers first landed on the shores of Gallipoli. The war had begun 9 months earlier and Australian blood had already mingled with foreign soil, but it was in the near impenetrable hills of Turkey that we awoke to the truly horrifying nature of modern warfare.

As we commemorate the centenary of Anzac Day, a worthwhile exercise is to discern lessons from the First World War, lessons that Australians today would do well to learn.

1. Humanity’s limitation

1. Humanity’s limitation

Consider these ‘isolated’ events that led to the eventual campaign in Gallipoli: there was the double homicide in Sarajevo which a posteriori proved to be the trigger for global war, although it was not designed to be. There was the carelessly written note from Kaiser Wilhelm to the Austrians now infamously called the ‘blank check’ that the Austrians interpreted as support for going to war. There was the Serbian effort to comply with almost all of the unreasonable demands set by the Austrians. And then there was Russia, who understandably mobilised over 1 million troops but only succeeded in pushing Germany closer to conflict, and that resulted in France being obliged to support her ally Russia as well as using circumstances to take revenge on Germany for the humiliation of 1870. England may well have remained out of the war except that the German High Command decided upon a strategy to take France out of war quickly by audaciously invading through Belgium, and England being allies with Belgium felt compelled to go in to bat for her. and so the snowball got faster and bigger.

By the beginning of August much of Europe was now at war, but many nations held back at first. However, Turkey joined the Axis powers in October, Italy and Bulgaria entered the war in 1915, and in April the Australian Imperial Force joined English, French, and New Zealand armies in invading Turkey.

Efforts made by politicians and diplomats to maintain peace were futile. Austrian and German attempts to keep armed conflict contained to the Balkans were naive. And many welcomed and even agitated for war. Of course they didn’t have the benefit of hindsight, but that is my point. The most informed and powerful people of 1914 were unable to limit or avoid the European war. Humanity is limited in knowledge and will-power.

Even our pursuit of peace is constrained by our human foibles and at times disingenuous agendas. With the end of the war in November 1918, a ‘peace’ was proposed, debated and enforced, although the Russians would not enjoy it as they continued to war amongst themselves. This war and peace of The First World War gave raise to Communism and Fascism, it enabled Japan to promote its Imperialist thirst, the Middle East was carved up by the Western victors, thus giving further reason for Arab animosity toward the West, and 21 years later the world was embroiled in a war that would kill four times as many people. And the repercussions did not end there. The Second World War was followed by decades of a Cold War which which despite its name, took the lives of 10s of millions people. In other words,the double murder in Sarajevo of June 1914 had consequences far beyond what Gavrilo Princip could ever conceive, and even then his crime was the fruit of political and racial tensions that had been brooding in Eastern Europe for decades.

We can’t escape our past. History influences us and its shadow is sometimes so great that we are swallowed up by it. When we do manage to break with the past, our actions can prove as helpful as the person who first introduced Cane Toads to Australia: novel, new and more troublesome than the original issue.

2. Humanity’s genius.

2. Humanity’s genius.

War is a stimulant for people to excel not only on the battlefield but in science, medicine and technology, in politics and the arts.

People have extraordinary minds, capable of creating the most astonishing killing machines and discovering medical procedures for healing the resulting injuries. We have the brains to train, mobilise, feed, clothe and arm tens of millions of troops all over the globe. Genius was displayed, albeit primarily for brutal purposes, to invent new weapons of war such as gas, flame-throwers, tanks, and arming airplanes with synchronised machine guns.

It is often said that the First World War was fought behind the front lines as much as it was battled in the trenches. It was not the first industrial war, but the world had never seen humanity work and build and create on such a scale as evidenced in 1914-18. Steel and coal were the bedrock of this war. These materials enabled factories to produce tens of millions of bombs, millions of weapons, many thousands of artillery pieces, battleships, submarines, and for the first time, airplanes.

War is stupid and war is brilliant.

3. Humanity’s sacrifice.

3. Humanity’s sacrifice.

Over 130,000 men were killed during the 9 month campaign along the Dardanelles Peninsula, including almost 9,000 Australians. The horrors that Australians experienced in Gallipoli were however only a prelude to the bloodshed of the Western Front. In total, approximately 16 million men and women died in the war and many more millions were wounded physically and mentally. One in five Australian servicemen were killed, a higher percentage of deaths than in any other nation.

While many soldiers may have enlisted out of love for country or for an adventure, they died for their mates whom they serve alongside. During the course of the war 64 Australians were recipients of the Victoria Cross, many of them posthumously. 9 VCs were awarded in Gallipoli’s most ferocious battle, The battle of Lone Pine. These men were awarded this highest honour for bravery by sacrificing themselves for their friends. Countless thousands more would suffer injury or death without any public honouring.

The war demonstrated that men and women can sacrifice greatly for the good of others. Sadly, many millions died for causes that were less than noble, but it remains true that the First World War affirmed love for fellow man through sacrifice. It was Jesus who said, ‘Greater love has none than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13).

4. Humanity’s corruption.

4. Humanity’s corruption.

The 20th Century surely teaches us that evil cannot be easily contained. The sins of war are not limited to acts of violence, but they include greed and coveting and lying and anger, the kinds of motives that culminate in war. Racial tensions between Slavs and Austrians was one of the catalysts for the war, and racial intolerance toward Jews was one of the war’s dreadful aftereffects. It is also estimated that Turkish forces were responsible for the deaths of 800,000 Armenian people.

The reality is, humanity has a terrible track record when it comes to controlling iniquitous desires. I am reminded of Paul’s words in Romans chapter 1, ‘Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them’.

War is terrible and the way of peace is not easy. When Germany invaded Belgium, thousands of civilians were murdered; how under such circumstances could Great Britain, Belgium’s ally, remain on the sideline? And the peace treaty that was finally sealed in 1919 was so untenable for many parties that further conflict was inevitable.

What now?

What now?

Human beings have colossal value. It is why we fight so vigorously for life and it is why death appalls us so. The First World War revealed to modern man what we are capable of achieving when we are resolute. With the Enlightenment and Nietzsche’s declaration of the ‘death of God’ we did not evolve into better people, rather, we invented ways to more effectively wage war. It is true that the First World War so appalled some nations, including Great Britain, that in the 1930s they did their utmost to blow away the storm clouds of Nazism through diplomacy. War is hell, and damn to hell those who want another war. But as we now know, a Second World War came, and it was more bloody and terrifying than the first.

We would be naive to believe that the world will not again witness warfare with such brutality. While recent wars may not have resulted in as great a loss of life for Western nations, we are largely ignorant of the huge numbers of casualties suffered over the last 20 years in Central Africa and in the Middle East. And this is only taking into account conflict through war, and not the many other issues that devour humanity.

We need a new paradigm for dealing with human conflict. We need an alternative narrative. The First World War reminds us of the glory and shame of humanity, and of the repeated incredulity of believing that we can be our own Saviour. Surely the First World War ought to cause us to turn from ourselves and to seek one who is greater than us and better than us, and who is loving enough to remove the greed and selfishness that is at the heart of these conflicts, and to change us and fill us with a love for our neighbour as ourselves.

Human warfare ought to provoke in us a desire for peace, and it should at the very least cause us to consider the One who claims to be the Prince of Peace. After all, if the last 100 years years is to teach us anything, it is that despite intelligence and sacrifice we are unable to produce a lasting and true peace for this world.

In the book of Revelation we are told that Jesus Christ redeems, rules and judges through the sword of his mouth, the word of God (1:16; 2:12; 19:15). Christians have sometimes forgotten this crucial truth, but more often they have lived by it. The Kingdom of God and the rule of peace comes through the proclamation of this Gospel of Jesus Christ. Men and women are turned from being God’s enemies to enjoying his peace through this Gospel, and as they are united to God in amazing love and joy they are also reconciled together. Jesus spoke of the love demonstrated by laying down ones life for a friends. The Bible speaks of an even greater love that we would do well to adopt, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:8 and 10).

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