16 July 03

The Dangers of Chronic Self-deception: Mussolini's "Invasion" of British-held Egypt, December 1940:

At the dawn of World War II, Benito Mussolini wistfully thought of himself as the modern incarnation of Julius Caesar. His ill-fated and pointless invasion of Greece in November of 1940 was already in full retreat, but he still longed for the center of the world stage for which he was convinced he was destined, particularly since Hitler, whom he considered a garish, but vulgar barbarian, seemed to be on a roll in western Europe.

Since his 1936 invasion of Ethiopia had been a one-sided success, Mussolini decided that an invasion of Egypt from his bases in Libya would also be an easy victory and would, most importantly, get his name back on the front page. After all, British troops in Egypt had only armored cars, while his troops had tanks, and the desert was too hot for the British anyway.

Unhappily, the real situation on the ground was far different from Mussolini's "pretend" version. In spite of numerous warnings from his field commander, General Graziani, about the substantial risks associated with going into Egypt, Mussolini continued in his dream world. If he had gone to Libya and seen the stark truth for himself, Mussolini would have personally witnessed the low moral, the broken-down logistics system that could never sustain any kind of invasion, and the utter lack of transport vehicles with which to get his troops to the front. His "army" in Libya was a joke! However, in the end, Graziani's warnings were brushed aside.

It turned out to be the shortest "invasion" in the history of modern warfare. By the time Mussolini's troops arrived, via foot march, at the Egyptian border, they were already starving and dying of thirst. Italian crews jumped out of the tanks and ran for the rear as soon as they saw the first contingent of British armored cars. Within weeks, nearly all Italian troops and tanks had been captured by the British. All surrendered with great enthusiasm. Few shots were fired. The whole "invasion" penetrated Egypt by only a few meters!

A German soldier was heard to comment to his British captors, "Next time, it's your turn to have the Italians!"

Comment: The forgoing is surely not unique in human history. At present, many of our national leaders suffer from the "Mussolini Syndrome." Concerned only with their own personal, political ambitions, they would rather "pretend" than face facts. They would rather listen to the soothing lies of their atta-boy subordinates than see for themselves what is really happening.

However, egoistic politicians can only pretend so long. Reality has a bad habit of crashing through the rhetoric veneer (as we see from the forgoing). That is when politicians also have to be good a finger pointing.

Heroes don't allow themselves to wallow in self-deception. They tell the truth, even when it is ugly and unpopular, and the shallow and self-centered hearers would rather "pretend." At the national level, there is currently a famine in the hero department!

/John