Winzig was a good child, a good son, and really is quite a good soldier. He obeys orders, he knows how to suck it up — but he comes of the era before the international agreements for protesting orders were in place for a more complete worldwide community.
Today, a soldier is required to question questionable orders and to voice his or her concerns. Then, it was Shut Up And Do As You’re Told. Soldiers were expected to be much more childlike and less responsible.
Which is weird, because it seems as though today soldiers are equated by many civilians with “kids” rather than the adults the Drill Instructors very quickly bully them into becoming. The military seems so weirdly sentimental today, even in its perception of itself. It seems to have forgotten that war and the military are the worst and final decisions, and that in the end the soldier’s job is to kill — and to die. Expecting them to really think about what they’re doing or having more than tactical goals is just messing up the mission statement.
Warriors make screaming charges against each other, led by the War Chief. It’s the PEACE chiefs who figure out where this is all really going and why.
It’s the women, by the way, who voted the War Chiefs in and out of office, because ultimately life is about the kids. A War Chief who forgot to whom he owed his duty and thought only of his own power and ego lost his job. Early love and fertility goddesses were also war goddesses.
