It’s one of the greatest three-word political slogans. No, not ‘Stop the Boats’ or ‘Axe the Tax’. But rather, a slogan we repeat every year and have done so for over a century: ‘Lest We Forget’.

The slogan was written back in 1897 by Rudyard Kipling, that great chronicler of the British Empire, in a poem celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. ‘God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far-flung battle line, Beneath whose awful hand we hold, Dominion over palm and pine— Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget!’ As we can see, so pleased was he with the phrase, he said it twice.

At Anzac Day ceremonies, where it takes pride of place, the phrase is as ubiquitous as the digger’s hat and a game of Two-Up. As such, it is evident just what we are being reminded to remember; namely, the sacrifices of our soldiers, who died fighting an enemy on the other side of the world in order, we are told, to preserve our freedoms.

Whether or not such lofty ideals as freedom, democracy, God, King and country were uppermost in every young soldier’s mind as he embarked upon that terrifying voyage into the unknown, from which he knew he might not return, we cannot know.

But several things we do know were on every young soldier’s mind were, firstly, that what he was doing was ‘the right thing to do’; that it was a ‘moral’ war; and that they were all risking their lives because Britain was in trouble and Australia always supports our greatest ally, come what may. Also on young minds was the reassuring knowledge that not only did their mates fighting alongside them ‘have their backs’, but so too did the entire nation back home.

And here’s where the cry ‘Lest We Forget’ becomes somewhat awkward. In 2026, those items listed above are all values that we Australians clearly have forgotten.

We have forgotten that some wars have to be fought simply because they are the right thing to do. We have forgotten that a war can be a moral crusade. We have forgotten that although the Lord blesses the peacemakers, the Lord is by your side if you are fighting a righteous war against evil. We have forgotten that when soldiers go to war they must not only have the unwavering support of their comrades-in-arms, but they must also have the unwavering support of the folks back home.

Rather than honouring our diggers by remembering these crucial factors, we have shamefully dishonoured them this year.

There is simply no question that Donald Trump’s war against the vile Islamic republic of Iran and his determination to wipe them out as a viable military force is a just and righteous war. The fact that for 47 years every single US President has disgracefully shirked the responsibility to genuinely contain these lunatics in no way negates the need for Donald Trump to take action now. Indeed, it reinforces the need. This preposterous regime has been unequivocal in its determination to attain nuclear weapons in order to destroy millions of lives by wiping Israel and American cities off the map and knows no bounds when it comes to cruelty and oppression against its own people. President Trump responded to the massacre of over 40,000 Iranians back in January by promising ‘Help is on it’s way’. Up to and including the overthrow of the mullahs, this was, and is, a just and righteous war of good against evil.

And there is only one moral position for Australia to take in such a war. As Britain was in 1914, today America is our most important ally and the guarantor of our national security. As such, the only position a responsible Australian government could have taken was to immediately offer moral and military support, to the maximum of our abilities. That is what ‘Lest We Forget’ means. It means never forget that in a perilous world you stay close to your allies, and the more powerful they are the closer you stick to them, for you never know when you will need them. But instead, the Albanese government chose to treacherously betray America, and in doing so, treacherously betray the sacred sacrifice of our diggers.

Furthermore, in light of ‘Lest We Forget’ there is only one moral position to take on Ben Roberts-Smith. Regardless of guilt or innocence in what are spurious and heavily political charges and allegations at best (see Louise Clegg’s excellent articles in this magazine on the history of the Statute of Rome war crimes legislation), it is unconscionable for a civilian jury to be trying crimes allegedly committed over a decade ago in a faraway land by soldiers fighting in extreme circumstances with civilians largely indistinguishable from the enemy and where prosecutors and defence lawyers today have limited if any access to crime scenes, witnesses, ballistics and so on. Moreover, it is utterly reprehensible that the Australian government spent an eye-watering three hundred million dollars literally advertising for and seeking witnesses to, and evidence of, these alleged crimes.

Even without Blackstone’s pronouncement that ‘It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer’, and regardless of Roberts-Smith’s war hero status, the only morally justifiable position for the government to take was to refuse to pursue the case because of the extenuating military circumstances and the passage of time.

The ‘lest’ in ‘Lest We Forget’ is above all a warning. It warns us that we forget these sacrifices and lessons of the first world war at our peril. It warns us that if we don’t remember and revere our military, when next we need them, they may not be there.

Lest We Forget? It would appear many already have.