Analysis

By Gideon Polya

Lest we forget

On ANZAC Day, Australia’s most sacred day, the nation solemnly pauses to remember those 100,000 Australian heroes who have died in wars. The phrase inextricably linked to ANZAC Day is “Lest we forget”. However the Mainstream media, politicians and academics of Australia have overwhelmingly ignored – “forgotten”-  the horrendous number of  civilians who died in wars in which Australia has been involved  and the moral courage of a small number of pacifists who refused to be party to the evil of war. An extraordinary omission from ANZAC Day remembrance is the Armenian Genocide in which 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Turkish nationalists in WW1 and which was precipitated by the 1915 invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli by Allied forces, including the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs), a failed invasion by the ANZAC forces from which ANZAC Day takes its name.

Read more: ANZAC & Armenian Genocide Day

By Ben Tanosborn

A friend who teaches history in one of the area’s community colleges cynically told me a dozen years ago, shortly after the September 11 attack, that the upcoming writing of American history would be done not by historians, but by economists. He contended that American military spending had brought the Soviet empire to its knees a generation before, now (in 2001) Osama bin Laden was lighting what he called the “slow wick-fuse” that would have the US implode as the ruling empire within a couple of decades.

Read more: America, Long on Indifference, Short on Indignation

By Sheldon Richman

On the day of the Boston Marathon bombings, President Obama stood in the White House briefing room and said, “We will find out who did this; we’ll find out why they did this.”

What motivated the murderous acts allegedly committed by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarvaev is the question on everyone’s mind. We would be surprised if it were not.

Read more: What If the Tsarnaev's Motive Was Revenge for U.S. Foreign Policy?

By Stephen Lendman

On April 20, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel began a weeklong Middle East trip.

Planned stops include Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Republic (UAE).

Read more: Hagel in Israel

By Uri Avnery

It was a moving experience. Moments that spoke not only to the mind, but also – and foremost – to the heart.

Last Sunday, on the eve of Israel’s Remembrance Day for the fallen in our wars, I was invited to an event organized by the activist group Combatants for Peace and the Forum of Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Parents.

Read more: In Praise of Emotion