paul sheehan SMH wrote

"Australia's military deployment in Iraq is one of PM Howard's cosmetic wars - large on symbolism and short on warfare. 2400 young Americans and tens of thousands of Iraquis - compared with two Australians have died so far because of the orders of a profoundly insular commander in chief - a leader who when his own generation was called to war preferred to let other young men do the fighting." When political leaders of another time in Ancient Rome paraded their political pedigree by means of slaves carrying images of their senatorial and consular forebears , Marius stood on the rostrum and tore open the front of his tunic and proclaimed "These are my imaginores!" - revealing the scars from the battle wounds. "I have no other imaginores!" and he turned around to reveal his back which was free from the blemish of scars, this symbolism proving his wounds were received while facing an enemy at his front of his body, not on his back as they would be if he had run away. His imaginores were in his living flesh, not in the cold carved marble of previous generations. PM Howard drags out his imaginores in photos of his father and grandfather in battle attire but he has no imaginores of his own. Korea and Vietnam seem to have passed him by. Marius used to see plenty like him.