Today is the most solemn day of the year for our antipodean allies, Australia and New Zealand.  In a binational holiday, the two nations commemorate an event that happened one hundred years ago today.  The Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (The ANZACs) landed at Gallipoli, in a bold move to take Germany's ally Turkey out of World War I.  The commander of the forces of the Ottoman Caliphate, the man who became Attaturk after the war, Mustafa Kemal, had other ideas, and the battle became horrendously bloody, with 8,709 dead from Australia and 2,721 from New Zealand. My Australian correspondent John McMahon puts the toll in perspective: It was a flaming, bloody waste; at this time, Australia's population was fewer than 5 million. Around 420,000 Australians enlisted for service in the First World War, representing 38.7 per cent of the male population aged between 18 and 44. For king and empire, the young colonials ventured forth into the meat...(Read Full Post)