Fed: Australia says thanks as Iraq Diggers take a two-beer break

AAP General News (Australia)
04-26-2007
Fed: Australia says thanks as Iraq Diggers take a two-beer break

With beers and two-up in Iraq .. and cheers and tears at home .. Australians yesterday
marked the 92nd Anzac Day with solemnity and gratitude.

From Brisbane to Baghdad and beyond .. Australians honoured the Anzac spirit of sacrifice
forged in Turkey in 1915 .. and saluted the 100 thousand war dead they have suffered since.

But the day was not without controversy .. from isolated incidents of vandalism to
rows over a Queensland rock concert .. and continuing dissent over the presence of Australian
troops in the Middle East.

At Adelaide's dawn service .. Anzac Day Committee chairman BILL DENNY said the original
Anzacs would be saddened by the indiscriminate slaughter of the four-year war in Iraq.

He says they would scrutinise Australia's deployments in the Middle East and would
be happy that our casualty rates are low .. but saddened at the indiscriminate slaughter
in which we've become mired.

Mr DENNY says in nine short weeks .. the war in Iraq will have been waged longer than
World War I .. with questionable progress and no end in sight.

AAP RTV dc/wz

KEYWORD: ANZAC (SYDNEY)

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