Lest we forget. A phrase that has echoed down the decades but one that needs some context.
Our youngsters understand the soldiers we remember on Anzac Day served to protect our country and our way of life, with many paying the ultimate price.
They also should know that, 100 years ago, our soldiers were caught up in a war that was largely about the territorial ambitions of European leaders.
It was not a war to protect New Zealand or even Britain, unlike World War 2.
Then British and New Zealand democratic values and way of life were undeniably under attack.
New Zealand and Australian soldiers did not land at Gallipoli to save or protect democracy; they were there to give the Ottoman Empire the deathblow European leaders had been trying to deliver for many centuries.
Turkish deaths in defence of their homeland were twice those of the attacking Allies.
We must ensure our youngsters understand their great-great-grandfathers and uncles were cannon fodder for that clash of imperial ambitions in Turkey and on the killing fields of Europe.
Some 18,000 New Zealanders died during WW1, with a further 42,000 casualties.
And little was resolved.
That war sowed the seeds for a further mighty clash of European and Japanese ambitions 20 years later, but this time with more sinister ideological undertones.
Talk to them about current wars.
Territorial and commercial ambitions led to the invasion of Iraq.
Iraq is not a happy country filled with a grateful populace.
It is a desperate place of death, destruction and hate.
The invasion of Iraq sowed the seeds of further global enmity, bloodshed and despair.
Help them understand that going to war is a very serious business.
It is not glamorous and the outcomes are neither predictable nor pleasant.
And many, many people die before their time, before they have the opportunity to marry, raise children and live fulfilled lives.
And the nature of war has changed.
It's become a particularly cowardly business.
War is waged on civilians more than ever before.
Powerful ambitions are part of being human and, unfortunately, we do have to protect ourselves from those leaders who would want to bully and confront us; would want to destroy our way of life and subjugate us to theirs.
And sometimes, as with the playground bully, we have to stand up and fight back.
That does take courage and it takes sacrifice.
It is not pleasant.
It is not a bit of a laugh.
It is deadly serious.
However, war is not always the answer and our youngsters need to understand and not forget that we must monitor and challenge our own leaders' ambitions as carefully as we monitor the ambitions of the leaders of others.
• Ian Munro
