Young Australians can no longer be dragooned into the kind of wars which decimated their forebears in World War I.
They're a lot more worldly wise than their innocent great-great-grandfathers, former prime minister Paul Keating says.
In his Remembrance Day commemorative address at the Australian War Memorial on Monday, Mr Keating was scathing of the "European disease" of nationalism and "cultural superiority peppered with racism" which led to World War I, a war which he said was "devoid of any virtue."
With the centenary of the outbreak of World War I nine months away, he said acknowledgment of Australia's war veterans and war dead had to be homage to and about them, not to some idealised or jingoistic reduction of what their lives really meant.
"One thing is certain: young Australians ... can no longer be dragooned en masse into military enterprises of the former imperial variety on the whim of so-called statesmen," he said in a reprise of his eulogy to Australia's unknown soldier 20 years ago.
"They are fortunately too wise to the world to be cannon fodder of the kind their young forebears became: young innocents who had little or no choice."
Some 2000 people attended the Canberra national Remembrance Day service, as cold rain pattered onto a sea of umbrellas on the 95th anniversary of the end to WWI.
On Remembrance Day, the Australian War Memorial adds the names of service personnel killed during the previous year.
Victoria Cross recipient Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith recited the two new young Australian names this year - Corporal Scott Smith, 24, and Corporal Cameron Baird, 32, both lost in Afghanistan.
After the service, Mr Keating and other VIPs, including Veterans Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson, who was representing Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and Opposition leader Bill Shorten, visited the Hall of Memory where the unknown soldier rests.
A brass plaque featuring an excerpt from Mr Keating's eulogy speech, described by war memorial director Brendan Nelson as a towering oratory, was unveiled at the hall.
The prime minister was in Melbourne, where he joined war veterans at the Shrine of Remembrance for the Remembrance Day service.
Also there was War veteran Pete Symes, 54, who served for seven months in Afghanistan. His three brothers served in Vietnam.
He says Remembrance Day isn't about glorifying war.
"It's about remembering people who have served and given the ultimate sacrifice," he said.
In Sydney, rain drenched the service with NSW RSL president Don Rowe declaring he was surprised and pleased at 400 turnout.
"It indicates to us that people are aware of what Remembrance Day means and the significance of it particularly as we are now marching on towards the centenary of Anzac," he said.
Share
