The crucial consequence of the terrible events of World War I was the rescue of democracy, primarily in Europe, but also around the world.
President Woodrow Wilson framed American involvement as a means to support the free people of Europe, principally the British and French.
The United States’ declaration of war on Germany in April 1917 and its subsequent dispatch of millions of troops to Europe were pivotal in securing an Allied victory. The democracies of Western Europe (Belgium, Britain and France) could not have prevailed without the contribution of American soldiers and armaments.
The repressive vision the autocratic rulers of Europe held for a post-war European order, thankfully, was never realised. Germany’s war aims were to dominate the continent while making the Kaiser a European emperor. Germany would have not only neutered Britain and France but also annexed Belgium and Luxembourg and seized swaths of territory from the Russian Empire in the east. A German victory would have sounded the death knell for European democracy.
Those who died in the horrific battlefields of France and Belgium and those who perished in the ill-planned Gallipoli landings did so for the maintenance of democracy!
Likewise, the Second World War was fought to keep the flag of democracy flying around the world.
The instability created in Europe by WWI set the stage two decades later for the Second World War. Rising to power in an economically and politically chaotic Germany, Adolf Hitler rearmed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his, and his Axis allies’, ambitions of world domination.
The Allied victory in the Second World War was terribly hard-earned but delivered the rejection of authoritarianism and dictatorship in favour of democracy.
A total of roughly 105,000 men and women from New Zealand served overseas during the Second World War. Of those, around 11,000 died on the battlefields of Europe, Asia and the Pacific.
On Anzac Day, we commemorate those who fought and died for freedom and democracy. We all come together to remember our fallen soldiers, both men and women, who during war made the ultimate sacrifice.
Our country banded together as one – Maori, European, Pasifika – to join our allies to suppress the Axis tyrants so you and I could live in a free democracy. A democracy where we live as one. One country, one flag and one people living together as equals, each casting one vote.
Visit any New Zealand war cemetery in Europe or Asia, and observe the hundreds of graves, each marked with a white cross identifying a fallen New Zealand soldier. Not a Maori or Pasifika or European soldier, a NEW ZEALAND soldier!
Look at the ages of the fallen. All so young, so much life to live, so much to offer the world, but, sadly, never to return home.
They did not lay down their lives in vain. They died, heroically defending the most precious of New Zealand’s possessions, our democracy!
We, who were fortunate to come after these terrible conflicts, can never fully appreciate the horror, the nightmare and the privations endured on the battlefields of the world: endured, so we can all enjoy living in a free democracy.
New Zealand is at a historic crossroads. Through apathy we can allow ourselves to be herded left down the no exit, “Democracy Demise” road by this duplicitous Labour Government and their powerful Maori caucus as they push towards full Maori sovereignty and the cessation of democracy.
Or we can continue forward with positivity, retaining a form of government that empowers citizens to exercise their political rights and control; a government that allows and welcomes free speech, that preserves an independent judiciary, that values an impartial media and, most importantly, allows every vote to carry the same weight in elections: one person, one vote!
We are currently witnessing a massive overreach of power by this Labour Government. We are encumbered with an authoritarian Government intent on dividing the country along ethnic lines, into a form of governance in which Maori would hold a disproportionate amount of control, power and influence.
Can they not see the similarities between what they are striving to create and what wars were fought to end?
To allow Labour’s toxic He Puapua blueprint to supplant democracy with tribal rule would adjudge the lives of those thousands of New Zealanders to have been sacrificed in vain.
It is time for all New Zealanders to ask themselves –
The United States’ declaration of war on Germany in April 1917 and its subsequent dispatch of millions of troops to Europe were pivotal in securing an Allied victory. The democracies of Western Europe (Belgium, Britain and France) could not have prevailed without the contribution of American soldiers and armaments.
The repressive vision the autocratic rulers of Europe held for a post-war European order, thankfully, was never realised. Germany’s war aims were to dominate the continent while making the Kaiser a European emperor. Germany would have not only neutered Britain and France but also annexed Belgium and Luxembourg and seized swaths of territory from the Russian Empire in the east. A German victory would have sounded the death knell for European democracy.
Those who died in the horrific battlefields of France and Belgium and those who perished in the ill-planned Gallipoli landings did so for the maintenance of democracy!
Likewise, the Second World War was fought to keep the flag of democracy flying around the world.
The instability created in Europe by WWI set the stage two decades later for the Second World War. Rising to power in an economically and politically chaotic Germany, Adolf Hitler rearmed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his, and his Axis allies’, ambitions of world domination.
The Allied victory in the Second World War was terribly hard-earned but delivered the rejection of authoritarianism and dictatorship in favour of democracy.
A total of roughly 105,000 men and women from New Zealand served overseas during the Second World War. Of those, around 11,000 died on the battlefields of Europe, Asia and the Pacific.
On Anzac Day, we commemorate those who fought and died for freedom and democracy. We all come together to remember our fallen soldiers, both men and women, who during war made the ultimate sacrifice.
Our country banded together as one – Maori, European, Pasifika – to join our allies to suppress the Axis tyrants so you and I could live in a free democracy. A democracy where we live as one. One country, one flag and one people living together as equals, each casting one vote.
Visit any New Zealand war cemetery in Europe or Asia, and observe the hundreds of graves, each marked with a white cross identifying a fallen New Zealand soldier. Not a Maori or Pasifika or European soldier, a NEW ZEALAND soldier!
Look at the ages of the fallen. All so young, so much life to live, so much to offer the world, but, sadly, never to return home.
They did not lay down their lives in vain. They died, heroically defending the most precious of New Zealand’s possessions, our democracy!
We, who were fortunate to come after these terrible conflicts, can never fully appreciate the horror, the nightmare and the privations endured on the battlefields of the world: endured, so we can all enjoy living in a free democracy.
New Zealand is at a historic crossroads. Through apathy we can allow ourselves to be herded left down the no exit, “Democracy Demise” road by this duplicitous Labour Government and their powerful Maori caucus as they push towards full Maori sovereignty and the cessation of democracy.
Or we can continue forward with positivity, retaining a form of government that empowers citizens to exercise their political rights and control; a government that allows and welcomes free speech, that preserves an independent judiciary, that values an impartial media and, most importantly, allows every vote to carry the same weight in elections: one person, one vote!
We are currently witnessing a massive overreach of power by this Labour Government. We are encumbered with an authoritarian Government intent on dividing the country along ethnic lines, into a form of governance in which Maori would hold a disproportionate amount of control, power and influence.
Can they not see the similarities between what they are striving to create and what wars were fought to end?
To allow Labour’s toxic He Puapua blueprint to supplant democracy with tribal rule would adjudge the lives of those thousands of New Zealanders to have been sacrificed in vain.
It is time for all New Zealanders to ask themselves –
- Are we now afraid to stand up for what is right?
- Do we now not value the rights of each person equally?
- Are democracy and free speech now not worth fighting for?
- Do you want to live in a country where you are defined and divided by race?
They most certainly DID NOT fight for Tribal Rule!
All those soldiers, sailors and airmen: each someone’s husband or wife, son or daughter, still lying in a foreign country, never to return home.
This fraudulent Labour Government and its support parties, who are hell-bent on consigning all aspects of democracy to the history books are, in essence, trampling on the graves and destroying the memory of those brave men and women who fought and laid down their lives to preserve democracy.
SHAME ON YOU! YOU SHOULD FOREVER HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME!
John Porter is a citizen, deeply concerned about the loss of democracy and the insidious promotion of separatism by our current government. This article was first published HERE
15 comments:
"The Allied victory in the Second World War was terribly hard-earned but delivered the rejection of authoritarianism and dictatorship in favour of democracy."
Not sure about that, John. The Soviet Union (an ally) played a massive role in the defeat of Germany. In fact, it's uncertain whether just a US/UK/etc invasion from the West/South would have defeated Germany without them.
Russia tied up most of Germany's forces on the eastern front and inflicted massive losses.
That aside, what we got was an effective Communist dictatorship which took over all of Eastern Europe and started the Cold War and the ongoing threat of nuclear conflict.
I think we traded one dictator for another. Stalin was just, if not more so, as deranged and evil as Hitler and wiped out just as many people.
There is a limit to how much a practical person can find time to read so I am not familiar with the German political system prior WW1. Whatever, the Samoans preferred it to later NZ control. And Germany made enormous advances in many fields, extending to improvements for ordinary folk, prior WW1. Were it not for the likelihood of further war with the US, had they won life may not have been too intolerable. After all many aspects of our culture have gone anyway, like humour (except Tremain and Jones). And not all German cars have been expensive trouble.
I do not know exactly what motivated the ordinary maori soldier, and, apart from a natural enthusiasm for physical violence, I am not sure if they did either. Many enlisted after encouragement of artful elders who had a vague notion of a future situation somewhat as today, with maori in a position of great if not yet quite total control. If they had all refused to serve, NZ now would be a far more harmonious place. Maori numbers and losses in WW1 were very modest. (Check out those disturbing country war memorials).Maori functioned best grouped together but, after intitial casualties, the govt was afraid of a total wipe out as many district based British units had suffered. So they were allotted the relatively safe task of trench digging.
The Soviets took a little longer fall but Agree that without Stalin the WW2 outcome would have been a bit different.
The Ukrainian war is just a further step away or towards a democratic world and that will take years to resolve.
Well written John, and very appropriate for ANZAC Day 2023 in New Zealand.
Labour/Greens/Maori Party are now the real enemy of democracy in New Zealand. The damage to our country that they have already generated is sickening. They are deranged and their evil must be stopped in October.
You're normally on point DeeM, but not this time.
You've raised a very timely and important issue John, but I am truly staggered at the apathy and outright ignorance of the general public, or those interim polls are not representative of the general public's likely voting choices. Maybe it's a bit of both, but what I do know is that our msm are a pack of low-life hypocrites - claiming respect for our fallen in one breath, while in the next promoting the anthesis of democracy by suppressing all dissenting views. So it's not only certain politicians that should be hanging their heads in shame, but those mercenaries/traitors in the media that have sold their souls to this current regime.
Lest we forget.
One must ask what are we prepared to do or lose to maintain or win freedom and democracy.
Or put it another way, is democracy and freedom worth the loss of those who have gone before.
From one who has not endured the horrors and privations of war, to say yes it is, seems rather a smug response, certainly while in a comfortable chair in from of a screen.
There are those of us who would gladly emulate all those who fought for freedom and democracy, either on the battle field or other places when needed.
Here in New Zealand we are on the cusp of losing freedom and democracy, a change of government wont necessarily guarantee things will change.
It was a Kharzarian war started by a Russian anarchist who shot Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife.
They managed to succeed their will in Russia. In WWll they furthered their goal.
Until we have what we have now. It's Black Rock, Hollywood, pfizzer, Bill and Melinda Gates, the current US administration, the list goes on, did I say Antony Fauci? Mark Zuckerberg....
The corporations controlling democracy.
But I am with you John Porter, my Grandfather was there at 17, luckily he came back.I think he arrived in England on Armistice day.
I feel for our losses,
Lest we forget.
I didn't include importantly the UN, the WEF, the WHO Karl Schwab, George Soros with his rainbow NGO's BLM antifa, all by stealth.
He Puapua is an extension of their far reach, using climate change Covid pandemics and ears to further their goal. Just an awful awful state, but we can all but try to steer this unweilding mess and fight in each day by trying to understand the complexity of it and bring it to others attention.
On tvnz 1 news last night, they kept saying all the soldiers bravely fought for aotearoa. They couldn't even give it a rest for 1 day. ANZAC means australia, new zealand army corps , not australia aotearoa army corps. And the nz anzacs were fighting for Uk actualy as part of the wider colonies. Yet of course the mms wants to cancel the truth, once again.
John Porter's romanticised version of early 20thC history overlooks quite a few things. One is that universal suffrage did not yet exist, i.e. democracy existed in incomplete form only. More important was the imperial order, which is what the British and their colonial cuzzies were fighting for. That's for those who had some idea what they were killing and dying for - diaries and other records from WW1 indicate that most combatants had no idea why they were doing what they were doing.
With regard to WW2, anyone who tries convincing me that the alliance with Satan himself (aka Joseph Stalin) had anything whatsoever to do with democracy or freedom has an uphill struggle ahead. I rather suspect that the western allies saw a threat from Germany to the Anglo-American global capitalist hegemony that they wanted to neutralise. Moreover, here they were faced with an economic model that both worked and delivered social services to the people. The ruling classes in the West felt very threatened and acted accordingly.
I agree with Barend.
The average squaddie, based on what I've read, was fighting for King and Country, not the relatively new notion of democracy. They had a strong sense of duty and wanted to fight with their mates to protect their families and friends.
Germany was an aggressor that had to be defeated. Just like all other aggressors going back through the centuries.
Far too many NZers seem to think that a change of government will correct the present mess.
Not sure - the change of course now has very deep roots.
A new centre right government will face a massive task to undo the worst of the damage - but not all. Three very tough years ahead with a very aggressive Opposition to deter them at every step.
Or, Labour and allies get a third term - game over.
A strong spirit of Empire and duty pervaded in both WWs. I am not sure that mania for democracy at all levels was the drive .Youth were fed the story of the vey young rating who remained alongside his wrecked gun on deck in the Battle of Jutland and died at his post doing absolutely nothing useful. And the story of the Pompeii soldier found preserved at his post, fulfilling his duty was known to all school children.
There is no such spirit today. I cannot imagine many non maori now being inspired to defend to the death NZ and co governance. Not unless the likely conquerors demonstrate that we colonist descendants will be treated far worse than Wyugers.
The author of this post has taken a very British centric view of the buildup to both World Wars. But his viewpoint is a tad disrespectful of the British Navy and the ordinary British and Commonwealth soldiers.
And to follow his lead with Democracy under attack in New Zealand because we are beginning to recognise the Treaty of Waitangi does him little good. He should be very grateful to Maori for providing the diggers etc for helping to tunnel under the German lines and other places.
In the Second World War, NZ sent over a Maori Battalion who fought with the best in helping to defeat the NZis, and now the writer denigrates their efforts. Shame on you.
Anonymous@2.59pm - bollocks! The author doesn't denigrate the Maori battalion's efforts, but if you want to separate them from other NZ'rs that's over to you. Under the Treaty all of us are "subjects" and, therefore purportedly, equal. But clearly you see it differently and that some of us are, or should be, more equal than others?
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