Honor

So here's my take on this stuff. The military does their job honorably 99.999% of the time. The fact that the jobs they are given by civilian commanders are shitty... not their fault.

The fact that military officers think the Pumpkin's actions depicted here are a travesty bears this out.

The only reason he's doing this is to feed the lowest, worst elements of his base, for whom "being a man" means ruthless violence, nothing more or less.