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In politics this is known as the \u2018Our Boys Didn\u2019t Die in Vain\u2019 syndrome. In 1915 Italy entered the First World War on the side of the Entente powers. Italy\u2019s declared aim was to \u2018liberate\u2019 Trento and Trieste \u2013 two \u2018Italian\u2019 territories that the Austro-Hungarian Empire held \u2018unjustly\u2019. Italian politicians gave fiery speeches in parliament, vowing historical redress and promising a return to the glories of ancient Rome. Hundreds of thousands of Italian recruits went to the front shouting, \u2018For Trento and Trieste!\u2019 They thought it would be a walkover. It was anything but. The Austro-Hungarian army held a strong defensive line along the Isonzo River. The Italians hurled themselves against the line in eleven gory battles, gaining a few kilometres at most, and never securing a breakthrough. In the first battle they lost 15,000 men. In the second battle they lost 40,000 men. In the third battle they lost 60,000. So it continued for more than two<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dreadful years until the eleventh engagement, when the Austrians finally counter-attacked, and in the Battle of Caporreto soundly defeated the Italians and pushed them back almost to the gates of Venice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The glorious adventure became a bloodbath. By the end of the war, almost 700,000 Italian soldiers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
were killed, and more than a million were wounded. After losing the first Isonzo battle, Italian politicians had two choices. They could admit their mistake and sign a peace treaty. Austria\u2013Hungary had no claims against Italy, and would have been delighted to sign a peace treaty because it was busy fighting for survival against the much stronger Russians. Yet how could the politicians go to the parents, wives and children of 15,000 dead Italian soldiers, and tell them: \u2018Sorry, there has been a mistake. We hope you don\u2019t take it too hard, but your Giovanni died in vain, and so did your Marco.\u2019 Alternatively they could say: \u2018Giovanni and Marco were heroes! They died so that Trieste would be Italian, and we will make sure they didn\u2019t die in vain. We will go on fighting until victory is ours!\u2019 Not surprisingly, the politicians preferred the second option. So they fought a second battle, and lost another 40,000 men. The politicians again decided it would be best to keep on fighting, because \u2018our boys didn\u2019t die in vain\u2019. Yet you cannot blame only the politicians. The masses also kept supporting the war. And when after the war Italy did not get all the territories it demanded, Italian democracy placed at its head Benito Mussolini and his fascists, who promised they would gain for Italy a proper compensation for all the sacrifices it had made. While it\u2019s hard for a politician to tell parents that their son died for no good reason, it is far more difficult for parents to say this to themselves \u2013 and it is even harder for the victims. A crippled soldier who lost his legs would rather tell himself, \u2018I sacrificed myself for the glory of the eternal Italian nation!\u2019 than \u2018I lost my legs because I was stupid enough to believe self-serving politicians.\u2019 It is much easier to live with the fantasy, because the fantasy gives meaning to the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n