IS THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL NOW INSULTING THE GALLIPOLI ANZACS?

Lest it be thought that Dr Peter Stanley's revisionist denial of the gravity of the Japanese threat to Australia in 1942 (including his related attack on the character of Prime Minister John Curtin) is a one-off aberration, I have included below some controversial revisionist claims about the Gallipoli Anzacs attributed by "The Australian" newspaper to Dr Peter Stanley and fellow historians at a conference convened in 2002 in Turkey by the Australian War Memorial and Curtin University.

If the quotes have been accurately reported, then I believe that most Australians would view them as outrageous, and possible disgraceful. I personally find it difficult to avoid concluding from the tenor of the reported comments and proposals that the trip to Turkey was anything but an outrageous junket for postmodernist* historians intending to debunk the Anzac tradition and funded by the long-suffering Australian taxpayer.

IT APPEARS THAT DR PETER STANLEY'S CONTROVERSIAL REVISIONISM IS NOT LIMITED TO THE AUSTRALIAN WAR EXPERIENCE IN 1942

"The Australian" newspaper reports that Dr Peter Stanley and his fellow historians attacked the "myths" surrounding the Anzac experience at Gallipoli.

Historians at this conference are reported as saying of the Anzacs and Gallipoli:

"The landing was nothing but an unjustified invasion of foreign soil.."

"...schools should be prohibited from commemorating what was essentially a disaster.."

"... the November 11 one-minute silence should be banned because it is passing on the wrong values."

"We must stop calling the Anzacs heroes.."

"the so-called heroic Anzacs were not even particularly good fighters but were often cowards..."

"(We academic historians) have a great responsibility to interpret Gallipoli properly because we are the prism through which the public understands the Gallipoli story."

Dr Peter Stanley is himself reported as saying of Gallipoli:

"We are just rediscovering Gallipoli and what it means to Australians today....We cannot get sucked in by the patriotic propaganda."

FROM the article "Charge of the rewrite brigade" by Jonathan King. Courtesy of News Limited. See full text of article.

* On neo-Marxist postmodernism, see the chapter "Has sceptical neo-Marxist postmodernism infected the Australian War Memorial?".

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