A Soldier's Farewell
Mike Carlton writes in The Sydney Morning Herald of the funeral of the first Australian soldier to die in Iraq - "THE QUEEN and the Household Cavalry were probably unavailable at short notice, but the Government loaded the funeral of Private Jake Kovco with all the martial pomp and circumstance it could muster.
There was a gleaming gun carriage for the coffin, an army band in scarlet, a sombre Prime Minister and a damp-eyed Defence Minister, a platoon of Australian Defence Force top brass and a guard of honour, a rifle volley over the grave and, at the climax, an RAAF fly-past.
They used to call this a field-marshal's funeral, hallowed grandeur fit for a warrior commander with a roll of victories on his escutcheon, or for a winner of the Victoria Cross killed in action. It was grossly over the top for a junior soldier shot, not in combat, but accidentally in barracks by a gun that had been left loaded against the rules.
We are accustomed to John Howard's now offensive obsession with wrapping himself in cammo and invoking the Anzac legend to his political advantage at every opportunity. Plainly, the elaborate ceremonial for Private Kovco was a media stunt by a Prime Minister desperate to duck the public relations disaster of the bungled return of the body and anxious to shore up waning public support for the Iraq war.
Veterans have told me they were dismayed by this excess. Howard should know that it demeaned the sacrifice of thousands of more deserving Australian service dead - including prisoners of war of the Japanese - who were never farewelled in such clouds of glory.
I mean no disrespect to Jacob Kovco. But what military honours are now left to bestow if a digger dies in action in Iraq?
GOVERNMENTS have always exploited their soldiers. Certainly that was the case in the Vietnam War, which the Menzies lot joined for the same reasons that Howard took us to Iraq: to brown-nose the Americans."
Hear, Hear. When my Father, who was a POW of the Japanese for three and a half years in Changi/Sandakan/Kuching, died two years ago my Mother got a letter of condolence from The Department of Veterans Affairs. Not a word from the P.M. or his Department. No guard of honour, rifle volley over the grave or RAAF fly-past. Not that the old man would have wanted it.
Malcolm Lambe
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Reader Comments (2)
Damn! so so cranky on a beautiful autumn morning...
I honestly believe people who can still think for themselves are not fooled by any of this circusry. The Kovco carnival is just symptomatic of the way life is now 'sold' to the wad of mediocrity out there. Ideas are not enough anymore; the masses need pretty pictures rather than words to understand what they're experiencing, a fireworks display rather than a minute's silent reflection, maybe a soundtrack to make the ordeal more palatable. And I'll bet 80% of all Australians still couldn't point Iraq out on a map.
I'm limp at the prospect of it all...