The PM is the bloke on the left

Dear reader, we hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures of the Prime Minister visiting the troops in Afghanistan. He was very smartly dressed in combat gear. We like combat gear. It’s perhaps more important than the wedding suit in its symbolism and importance. It was good to see the PM, with a helmet also. We think that a helmet makes an individual look dashing. Though we’re loathe to admit that contemporary helmets are just a little bit too utilitarian for our liking. In the olden days the classic tommy helmet, looked really good, and none can go past the easygoing insouciance of the slouch hat.

Gallant General Gordon

The PM gave us two sound bites. We saw the PM telling the brave noble Anzac soldiers what a good job they were doing in Afghanistan. They’ve been at it now for over twenty-two years. This is quite remarkable. It’s longer than the interval between the end of the First World War, and the start of the Second World War. In that time there was all sorts of changes in foreign policy and international affairs. In Afghanistan over that twenty years there’s been none. Spose that’s a lesson from the two world wars and Vietnam. Without a conscript army you can just go on willy nilly and no one seems to notice. Must cost a bit, but then, in anointing those poor wretched people with civilisation and western values it must be worth it. Funny thing though, in the helicopter, the PM sat with his flack jacket on, and the bloke sitting next to him was looking out the open window whilst holding onto a really big machine gun. It’s belt was chocka-block with what looked like 50 cal ammo. And that was in the middle of Kabul!!

It seems strange to have been there twenty odd years and have such a tenuous hold. Looked a bit like Gordon at Khartoum. But maybe, (and this would be the correct interpretation) it gives hope to the folks at home that something really serious is being done to restore order.

Rorke’s Drift

We like pith helmets too. That’s the pity with Australia’s first war, there were no pith helmets. How we envy South Africans. We, (of the white empire) not only got to use them in civilising the Zulus, but got to use them again when we taught the Boers a lesson about decency and good manners. It’s a pity the pith helmet wasn’t used too much in the First World War, and hardly at all in the Second. A pith helmet if anything, is a symbol of decency and correctness.

On a deeply personal level, I’m in a bit of a quandary as to what to wear to this years Anzac march. I’ve got my grandad’s medals from WW1, and my dad’s ones from the Pacific War. My dilemna is whether to go the First World War, with the ostrich plumes and the sam brown, with bandolier, or go the battle jacket, Lee Enfield and slouch hat. Dad was in the air force, so I could wear a bit of an RAAF ensemble. But it lacks panache. That’s what I secretly admire about the German and Italian uniforms of WW2. Full of style and panache. That’s why we also like the Border Force uniforms, reasserts that style. First Australians complain about the unofficial war that displaced them. I dunno, if they had a decent uniform you’d accord them due respect. Same goes for asylum seekers, they’re a scruffy lot, and it’s all a bit; ‘He said , She says’ really.

I’m really looking forward to the dawn service.

Old blokes dressing up. Makes us PROUD!

Makes us proud to be Australian.