The celebrations of November 4th of this year, traditionally centered on the memory of the Victory in 1918, were added or even superimposed on the anniversary of the burial of the Unknown Soldier at the Altare della Patria three years later, in 1921.
The two dates represent two fundamental and different moments in our national history. In fact, if with the first the political and military process of the Wars of Independence of the previous century ended with the affirmation of a united and sovereign Italy, with the second it was the national population who appropriated its role as protagonist of that transformation, through a liturgy, secular and religious at the same time, which has never had an equal in our history.
In short, a hundred years ago on November 4, 1921 an Italy that finally became “great” thanks to the sacrifice of its children solemnly certified its new dignity, through a collective mourning that was elaborated and transformed into national pride. And it is a solemn, accurate elaboration, organized down to the smallest detail, but spontaneous at the same time, as also emerged from the recent historical reconstructions in which Rai has finally committed itself, in some way, too.
There was, then, the awareness of the historical significance of an event that was not only intended to pay homage to the fallen, orphans, widows, mothers and ex-combatants who thronged by the millions, in silence, along the route of the train carrying the “son of Maria Bergamas” from Aquileia to Rome; it was above all, instead, an act with a high symbolic value which sanctioned the maturation, even at the popular level, of a new and ambitious international power, with which to deal. For this reason, the journey of the Unknown Soldier did not end in a simple, albeit solemn, Monumental Tomb set up in some historic square of the Capital, but in that “Vittoriano” between the Roman Forum and the Campidoglio which had been dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II , Father of the Fatherland. A Father to whom his own descendants therefore decided to take a step back from the unknown soldier arriving from a remote Karst war cemetery, but capable of transforming that mammoth architectural work into the Altar of the Fatherland. A term with an unequivocal symbolic meaning.
Of course, these are issues extremely distant from the current political and “cultural” debate, which can hardly be digested by a public opinion conditioned to consider the national sovereignty, which was solemnly enthroned at the time, an evil to be rejected. what, and to distance ourselves from the warlike tones typical of the leading generation of those years and those that followed.
These are distant themes for those who are accustomed to considering war a misdemeanor of the past, incompatible with our smug modernity, as well as to consider defense itself an “excess” to be punished in any case, whether it be that of national borders, of the person, family or property, such as when someone sneaks into someone else’s house for the purpose of robbery, or worse.
They are also distant themes for those who consider with provincial detachment the reality that orbits around us, even at a short distance, as if what we are discussing about ultrasonic missiles, drones, new generation aircraft, satellites, nuclear submarines with which cementing new alliances such as the Aukus, were technological issues carried out by some fans of futuristic belluries as ends in themselves and not by those who are preparing to lead their hands, perhaps sooner than we can foresee.
If not distant, these issues ultimately prove embarrassing for the Armed Forces themselves, imprisoned in the obligation not to disturb the marginal but more anti-militarist part of public opinion with the suspicion of always wanting to be the same, that is to say an instrument of war. first of all. A war that is not the encrustation of a Middle Ages that does not decide to pass, but a cataclysm that continues to bloody North Africa, the Sahel and the Middle East, to remain close to us, and which risks contaminating civilized Europe in Ukraine like the China Sea in the Far East.
This is an embarrassment due to the progressive and naive affirmation of the idea of ​​the soldier as a handyman operator who, thanks to the help of technology, would no longer need to resort to the aggressiveness, physical and moral strength of those infantry buried in the trenches of a hundred years ago. A soldier intended as a biological graft in a technological Weapon System, to be handled with gloves and a white coat and available for any need.
But if this may seem true, to an inattentive or distracted observer, with reference to the sailor or the jet or helicopter pilot, so it is not for the soldier tout court for whom it is not enough to draw on the passion for flight, for the sea ​​or for technology to convince him to commit himself to the point of putting his life at risk. For him, the motivational cue must in fact be sought in the deepest layers of the soul, drawing on that value and identity heritage that belongs to what he considers most deeply about him, starting from the family and the community that expresses it. And, especially in this context, the example of the Unknown Soldier is still indispensable.
These could seem empty rhetoric, words to the wind, were it not for the fact that the current discussion on the theme of a “European Army” that does not rely on a common identity to be satisfied instead with a shared interest by the Union, did not force a reflection.
In fact, if it is not a simple mercenary foreign legion that is sought, but a more reliable tool, the motivational system cannot be limited to the offer of a good permanent job, however full of adventure and stimuli. Instead, it is necessary to propose examples that know how to push towards emulation and service, as is the established practice in all the Armed Forces of the world, drawing on the inexhaustible patrimony of sacrifices to which all peoples have lent themselves over millennia of history. And if there are known or unknown Fallen capable of giving substance with their personal events to the willingness to sacrifice even of today’s national armies, there is no unknown communitarian soldier who symbolically synthesizes the common virtues of peoples who also combine many differences with their many affinities. , starting with the language, from the most internalized culture and traditions; not to mention the interests, of course, as blatantly highlighted by unscrupulous competition in the commercial, economic and even strategic fields, starting with Libya to give an example close to us.
In short, the Unknown Soldier does not yet represent an archaeological find to be shown to some thoughtful expert on ancient things, but the very fuel that feeds the life of a State that wants to continue to be free and independent, albeit in a context of free international alliances between even.
Among equals, in fact.
