John Fields wrote in
:

So now you'd have the countries we've helped making payments to
individual servicemen/women for the services they performed? That
would be OK, except that we don't run a mercenary Army.


I don't think the point was about services performed, but about
compensation for loss. If one soldier or marine gets luckier than another,
they're more likely to do well for themselves later as it's a hell of a
thing to put on the CV for those who value such things.

Is there an insurance against loss of limbs or other faculties in war? As
far as I know there isn't, everyone from the government right down to the
smallest private insurance companies expressly exclude such losses on the
grounds that war is hell, basically.