The essential thing to understand is that the desire to create these memorials to dead soldiers (please go to the image directly below) comes first. The mess begins with the idea or desire to create memorials--to honor those who have "given" their lives for their country.

Abandon the idea that the war was fought (for example, the First World War) for all kinds of stupid "reasons" and that millions of people died because of these "reasons" and that as a result the memorials were erected to honor the dead. Abandon this delusion.

The war began with the fantasy or unconscious idea of honoring dead soldiers by creating memorials to the dead (like the crosses below). Then came the reasons.