[wants to rise in leadership should GOP regain house?]
Back in the era of warriors, when men fought to take, by force, women, slaves, loot and land, and killed anyone of any age or gender who got in their way, people who fought wars were unsentimental about having their sacrifices mean something, as long as they got their material rewards. But the American soldier, who is above average in every way, yet gets paid less than his civilian counterpart, fights mainly for honor and sentiment, given the piddling material rewards on offer. Like a lot of his comrades, he is a Crusader, stripped of the religious aspect - he wants to bring the light of freedom to the benighted heathens.
The Crusader thing must be for modern military people, when I was in, I just wanted to kill the enemy and then go home!