KEY POINTS:
Ah, those unruly Irish! Fancy causing such a fuss at an Anzac Day march. And so soon after the Great War had ended, and so many Aussies and Kiwis had lost their lives on the beaches and in the trenches of Gallipoli.
But as we settle down tomorrow to commemorate their sacrifices, we should also recall one of the golden lessons of the Gallipoli campaign.
The Gallipoli invasion was an example of Australians and New Zealanders fighting other people's wars. Some 36,000 Australians, mostly young men in their twenties, lost their lives. More than 80 per cent of New Zealand troops there lost their lives.
But for what did these brave young men fight and die for?
Even in 1920, many Australians regarded this war as being fought for King and Empire. In a recent book review published in The Canberra Times, Frank O'Shea writes about Irish returned soldiers causing major controversy when they marched in 1920 under the Australian flag, not the Union Jack.
In doing so, they effectively declared that they had fought for Australia rather than for Britain ... the Irish in Australia were Australians as well as Irish, whereas the loyalists were British first and Australian second.
Aboriginal servicemen didn't have any such luck. To this day, visitors to Australia's War Memorial in Canberra will not find too many traces of Aboriginal involvement in Anzac battles.
Thousands of indigenous Australians fought overseas, with many hundreds giving the ultimate sacrifice to defend their nation. Yet the dead were buried in unmarked graves whilst the survivors were not eligible for returned servicemen land grants or even membership of Returned Services League (RSL) clubs.
Until recently, Aboriginal ex-servicemen were forced to march at the back of Anzac Day parades organised by the RSL. As the National Indigenous Times newspaper editorialised on Anzac Day in 2005:
"So blackfellas were good enough to fight alongside white Australia, but that's where the newfound equality ended. How could this happen in a nation that defines itself by the noble digger? The technical answer is because Aboriginal people weren't considered Australian citizens until the referendum of 1967, so they didn't qualify for all the benefits that comes with being an Aussie."
So until 40 years ago, indigenous Australians were certainly fighting the wars of a country that didn't recognise them as its own. What difference exists between this and fighting for a foreign power?
No doubt Aboriginal troops fighting the Japanese in Singapore and Malaya in World War II would have come across another set of brown-skinned soldiers subjected to racial discrimination by their military commanders. Recently I visited a cemetery in suburban Brisbane. I came across a well-preserved grave of a young man named Allah Ditta (which literally means God's gift), who served in the 16th Punjab regiment and did not live to see his 25th birthday.
Ditta was one of any number of Indian soldiers who fought the Japanese at Malaya and Singapore during World War II. Following the fall of Singapore, many of these Indian troops were taken to the notorious PoW camp in Changi.
These soldiers were fighting as part of an army defending possessions, then current and former, of a colonial power. This was not a war to defend India.
Melbourne author Neelam Maharaj's 2007 historical novel Surviving Heroes tells the story of Ramesh Kapur, an Indian officer in the British Army. Ramesh and his fellow Indians were encouraged by Mahatma Gandhi to join the British war effort.
Yet Indian troops were subjected to racial discrimination and humiliation by their British commanders. The Japanese knew this, and they sponsored the highly respected Indian National Congress dissident Subhash Chandra Bose to raise the Indian National Army (INA) from among Indian prisoners of war. Of course, patriotism combined with war can make scoundrels of even the most loyal. Indian prisoners joining this army to fight the British with Japanese help knew they'd be regarded as traitors to Gandhi's non-violent struggle.
At the same time, they witnessed Japanese brutality against British, Chinese and Malay soldiers and civilians slaughtered in cold blood. Joining the victors against the enemy at home must have been tempting.
At the very least, it would have been seen as the fastest route for Indian troops to join their loved ones back home.
But when the tide of war turned, the Indian National Army was abandoned by fleeing Japanese forces and charged with treason by the British. Its leader, Bose, died mysteriously in a plane crash during the dying days of the war.
Some years after the war, Indians did receive an independence of sorts. The partition of the country into two states saw violence that led to at least one million lives being lost.
Not much is gained in the long run by fighting other people's wars. The former conservative government of John Howard took Australia to a war in Iraq based on lies. Now Australia again finds itself embroiled in the Afghanistan conflict that allegedly defeated the Taleban seven years ago.
Mr Rudd has warned Australians of an inevitable rise in casualties. Now terrorists have two reasons to keep Australia in their sights.
Wisely, New Zealand has by and large removed itself from grinding the military axes of others.
It seems you have learned vital lessons after losing some 7400 young men on the sands and foothills of Gallipoli. I hope you will remember them.
* Irfan Yusuf is a Sydney lawyer who won the 2007 Allen & Unwin Iremonger Award for public affairs writing.
On the web: The Auckland War Memorial Museum has a Book of Remembrance on its website for people to post messages on to remember those who served and died in war.
