"Albert expresses it: 'The war has ruined us for everything.' He is right. We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war."

- All Quiet On The Western Front

To sheath the sacrificial Knifes.

- Southamption Dock, Pink Floyd

Comrade, I did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. . . . I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?

- All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Remarque


I've just returned from the Dawn Service at Melbourne's Shrine of Rememberance. It was a cold 10 degrees, heavy with moisture. Still, lots of people out there but it was hard to see a thing. I wasn't especially moved this time. And every time I hear someone say 'least we forget' or 'we will remember them' I have to have a cynical smile. Of course we will, sooner or latter. We just hope it's not sooner.

I'm going back into town shortly for the parade, see if that's better.

I see The Whig and ACT On Campus have already paied their respects. I expect others are yet to come. I'm especially looking to Silent Running to make some remarks, this is something Mr Murray does best.