Today is ANZAC Day, the 25th of April. It’s the anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli during the First World War.

Everyone who fought in that campaign is now dead.

So why, we ask ourselves, do we still commemorate these long-forgotten events?

The answer is on every memorial wreath and poppy tag: LEST WE FORGET. We hold these events — the memorial ceremonies at dawn and dusk, the parades, the endless speeches — in order to remind ourselves, and to inform the next generation, of a simple truth: that war is a great and terrible evil, to be avoided even at great cost.

There’s another truth that goes along with it, one I’d love for us to change: that war cannot always be avoided, and that the price of doing so is sometimes too high.

It’s difficult for the modern mind to consider why the Gallipoli Campaign was even fought. Why would Australians invade the Ottoman Empire half a world away? At the time, English planners thought of it as a use for obsolete naval forces that couldn’t stand up to the German High Seas Fleet but still would be invaluable in shore bombardments. The Ottomans were campaigning against the Russians, who were also fighting Germany on another front, so it was believed that this would create some much-needed relief and perhaps change the course of the war.

In practice, it was a nightmare, even against the backdrop of the horrors of the First World War, and even considering other opposed amphibious assaults against long-prepared fortified positions.

But none of that even matters today. Two hundred thousand men died, and for what? We’re still fighting the same war today — Russia against the locals, with Turkey meddling and the rest of the world picking sides. It has been fought over and over, never stopping, only pausing on occasion while everyone rearms.

And as for the dead: what could they have accomplished had they lived their full tale of years? How would the world now be better? How many happy moments did they miss?

Part of me wants to make a point about which side we should support and why, to draw a parallel with Gaza or the Sudan or the Rohingya or Korea. But that would be egregious, and it would convince no one. Your minds are already made up on the subject, so there’s no point.

Instead, I’ll remind you: War is terrible.

Watch the parade, if there’s one near you or if you can get video. Educate yourself about the War and its causes, the ones that came before and those since. Mourn the lost generations. Remember the fallen, and honor them.

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