EDITORIAL: Why Anzac Day 2022 will feel particularly poignant

Albany RSL president Helen Tasker says this year’s Anzac Day will be particularly poignant given the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine — and how right she is. Our city, perhaps more than any other in WA, feels a responsibility to honour the service and sacrifices of the Anzacs. The Anzacs left here 108 years ago, and many of them did not make it home. World War I remains our country’s deadliest conflict, with more than 60,000 Australians killed from a population of fewer than five million. The key event that precipitated that war and its horrendous loss of life was an assassination in Sarajevo. World War II started when nazi Germany, led by fascist dictator Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland in September 1939. Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, then, puts us in a precarious position. There are all sorts of horror stories coming out of Ukraine, some verified and others not. What is beyond doubt is that the rest of the world must be clear-eyed and considered in its response to the invasion because the stakes could hardly be higher. The world wars have shown us peace is more delicate than we might imagine and it can be lost in the confusion of aggression and alliances. But they have also shown us the grave dangers of nationalist dictators. This year’s Anzac Day services will indeed be particularly poignant. One of the most meaningful ways we can honour the sacrifices of our servicemen and women is to make sure the tragic waste seen in the world wars is never repeated.