Beautifully done.
Many moons ago I was inured in a stifling hut with 30 other odd folk on a course. A moustachioed WO2 burst in and after startling his dozing audience by shouting and banging on a desk, proceeded to regale us with how he and a bunch of erstwhile comrades had killed several hundred guerillas in a cross border raid into Mozambique.
As twenty somethings I think we were all duly impressed with his bloodthirsty tale to greater or lesser extent. He had been in the British Army, went and fought in Rhodesia and then later went on to join the Australian Army.
Twas only later and in hindsight that I felt the urge to ask the traitorous, mercenary, c*** what (apart from filthy lucre) possessed him to break his oath of allegiance and fight for an army and state that was, at least technically, in a state of rebellion against the Crown.
Missed opportunity, albeit one that possibly would have been quite dangerous if the question was posed at the time.
