The cult of the heroic sacrifice limits our understanding of the military activities we have recently been involved in: peacekeeping and social reconstruction. Fortunately fewer men die in these, but there is little public interest in how the military performs in these situations.

Ministers of defence on visits to Afghanistan, says Brown, seemed strangely uninterested in the details of what the soldiers did. (He is too generous to think that these were merely photo-op missions.) And the soldiers themselves begin to think because they have not charged machine-gun posts they have not been proper soldiers.

Paradoxically when a few men are killed, the nation goes into full mourning. It's Armistice Day all over again. The prime minister and leader of the opposition attend the Diggers' funerals. The question is asked: if three men have died in a month, perhaps the war is a huge mistake. The army very properly wants to limit casualties, but there must be some; the soldiers sign up for it and if war is to be part of public policy we should not panic when casualties occur.

Despite the force of Brown's arguments I am still something of a sucker for the Anzac legend. He cites a recent report criticising Australian soldiers for being too slack in Afghanistan; they were sunbathing and kicking footballs in places where fighting might erupt at any minute. That brought to mind the Diggers at Gallipoli swimming in the sea and dodging the Turks' shells. So I am no longer to admire that? Is it not good to have that insouciance in the face of danger? Brown's broad point is that the Digger legend might now be inhibiting the production of the best-quality professional soldiers. What grounds do we have for thinking our soldiers are the best - other than claims made on every Anzac Day?

The second way to sidestep the commemoration of death in battle is to check out your family history for men who served and came home alive, even if damaged. The dead are commemorated in graves tended by the War Graves Commission. The tombstones of returned men usually have no mention of their war service.