As the pink or black chronicles of the summer come to an end, the big themes return to those of geopolitics and war. On the other hand, a people of coaches and virologists, we have also been military analysts and strategists for 3 years.
Today, September 8, we will once again hear litanies about a date – divisive – that should instead unite. Some will speak again of the beginning of the “redemption” and “liberation”, someone else of disgusting “betrayal”. No one, after almost a century, will have the courage to tell the truth about what the rest of the world remembers as our “unconditional surrender”: a bearskin battle that we eunuchly call “Armistice” (Treccani - Cessation of war operations between belligerent armies, and therefore also the agreement by which two or more belligerents agree, through the supreme commanders of their respective armed forces operating, to suspend hostilities, often to allow time for negotiations to be carried out).
In the comments to the articles of this newspaper they arrive very often considerations of the type “We/You are servants of the USA!”, “NATO slaves” or other.
Should we be offended? Instinctively, even just for the tone, it would be natural. But let's be honest... Slavery in History has also been the result of defeats: the survivors could become slaves or face "quick" solutions of another type. The status into which one had fallen was however clear and conscious. In short, those who, bowed down, served the new masters certainly did not call it "volunteering". A dimension that however, after years and in the case of magnanimity of the master, sometimes even allowed one to regain freedom*.
For 81 years we have pretended to till other people's land (see economy) or to be massacred in the arenas (see missions) without admitting that we are forced to do so because we are losers.
How can we ever claim freedom if the first obstacle is the lie we tell ourselves? How can we have the respect and future genuine friendship of the Allies, if we still show ourselves to be so cowardly that we cannot look at ourselves in the mirror without "make-up"?
Will we continue to be the object of international ridicule for a long time to come (behind the scenes it is still very much present) or will we continue to act like "protagonists" when, at most, we are only "stuntmen": those who, if necessary, get hurt?
It is comforting to remember, two years later, a colleague and leading professional like Bruno Vespa who, when faced with provocations, had the rare courage to admit the truth ("Porta a Porta" of 22/06/2022).
When will our "democratic and republican" institutions do it?
* Il free was a slave who, in ancient Rome, had obtained freedom, often through manumission by his master. Although freed, the freedman did not enjoy the same rights as a free-born citizen, but acquired an intermediate status: he became a Roman citizen, with some limitations, such as the impossibility of accessing certain public offices. However, he often maintained a bond of loyalty with the former master, called patron, to whom he still owed some duties.
Read also: September 1943: "Unconditional surrender"
