Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
The key factor is faith...but it clearly can't be tied to ONLY religion (which is your well-put point, tequila). Faith in the cause is important, be it Marxist, Hoist, Maoist, God, Allah, Rah, or whatever. Faith in your buddies, your unit, is also an important factor.
I would say faith in unit/unit cohesion comes first. Even this most dedicated Marxist confessed with unabashed pride that he was involved in the "fragging" of a political officer who was in the habit of ordering one too many frontal assaults while hanging to the rear in most un-democratic fashion (his words --- one of his more fascinating relevations of the Chinese "volunteer" corps in Korea 1950-1951 was that frontline soldiers often voted on tactical approaches at company level and below, depending on unit).