The coward is the perfect military sacrifice.
Useless in battle, he makes his greatest contribution to the war effort by being shot pour encourager les autres.
Nothing is lost.
Something is gained.
It is far from true that the coward is more egoistic than others.
Threatened with death, he is unable to do what is asked of him, even to save his life, like an agoraphobe told to do high iron work or face execution.
So, through him, the threat that drives others over the top is made real.
The well-known story of the Patton incident, rehearsed in Eisenhower, called this to mind.
The crackpot but brilliant general, of course, personally loathed cowards whom he would well have shot, given the chance.
His attitude toward them stands to the traditional and still current moral and popular condemnation of cowardice as does violent homophobia to the traditional moral and lingering popular disapproval of homosexuality.
The concept of "the sissy" even unites them.
Personally, I find these beliefs and attitudes cruel and repugnant.
Morality, you will recall, is a tool of coercion and a license for violence.
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