THE ANGLOSPHERE MOUNTS UP:

AUSTRALIAN TROOPS MOVE (John Ray, January 23, 2003)

I live in Brisbane and our daily newspaper is the Murdoch-owned Courier Mail. Its headline today is Bravehearts set sail -- reporting that Australian troops have just left to join U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf readying for war with Iraq. I wonder how the N.Y. Times would have reported the story? "Troops depart amid controversy", perhaps. The Courier Mail also reports that our Prime Minister has said that Australia would join the U.S. regardless of the U.N. It makes me proud to be an Australian.

In their honor, here's a poem by Harry "Breaker" Morant, who was done poorly by in another unpopular war:

A Departing Dirge (The Bulletin, 5 August 1899)

Girls in town and boys out back,
I've rolled up my little pack,
And on june's chill wintry gales
Sail from pleasant New South Wales.
Ere I go - a doggerel song
To bid the whole caboose "So-long!"

Saddle-gear and horses sold -
Fetched but scanty stock of gold -
Scanty!! yet the whole lot
Publicans and Flossies got.
Since I in this country landed
Ne'er before was I so "stranded".

Now I'm leaving Sydney's shore
Harder up than e'er before;
A keen appetite I feel
To taste a bit o' British veal;
And let's trust, across the foam
They have a fatted calf at home.

From duns and debts (once safe on board)
Pray deliver me, oh Lord!
Here's the burden of my song:
"Good-bye, old girl! Old chap, So-long!"
Hardest loss of all I find
To leave the good old horse behind.
So-long, "Cavalier!"

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 24, 2003 9:17 PM