There is a deplorable campaign in progress to “rehabilitate” World War I — to make us believe it was fought with a purity of purpose by gallant young men who wanted nothing more than a land “fit for heroes to live in” (in the words of Lloyd George). In reality, it was a squalid conflict that set the stage for World War II and created bitter rivalries in the Middle East that continue to this day.
It should be obvious to everyone that the claim that those who died at Gallipoli “laid down their lives” for our freedom is ludicrous. The Ottoman Empire never threatened our freedom in New Zealand, and its foolish alliance with Germany during World War I is neither here nor there. So those who died at Gallipoli — those who initially assumed the war would be a spiffing, four-month adventure — really did die for nothing. I see no more point in remembering them than in remembering those who died in the Crimean War.