I didn't understand the significance of a huge part of it until just now.
it's been 18 years since metal gear solid 3 was released
but when Snake talks about a nation for all soldiers, with no one else to give them orders, and then immediately starts launching mercenary missions in peace walker and MGS V, I thought it was them wanting to essentially be a private military contractor like in MGS 4
but it isn't
the only way to fund their way of life is by being mercenary, until enough soldiers buy into the "nation of soldiers" thing
but I don't think fighting is the part of the nation
they couldn't adapt to civilian life, and want the military structure and respect and operating together
in a complex world they'd probably go fash.
but it's not that they don't want any nation to control them, in the mercenary fash sense. the entirety of their ideology, "no nation could control them, a place where soldiers can ", seems either deliberately misrepresented or probably lost in translation. because I'm now reading it as independence as a nation-state.
Big Boss thought The Boss' vision for things was about a paradise for soldiers, so he built a mercenary company and embraced that, thinking it was about always fighting
Zero thought it was about no borders and total control
but I think it's essentially "what if the US military's noncombat logistical and training operations just didn't involve being an army but all the other familiar and comforting structure was there. a 'civilian life' soldiers who could never adjust could actually survive in without fighting"
in this European Journal of Veteran Psychology article, I will