fine essay on Paul Verhoeven's prophetic Starship Troopers --

When some brave soldiers capture the “brain bug” at the end, it’s a
hollow triumph, because it’s a senseless war they’re biologically and
militarily doomed to lose. For the suckers going for citizenship, their
greatest hope is to sacrifice a limb or two, and get back home;
otherwise, the best and the brightest can expect the high honor of being
ceremonially jettisoned into the vast nothingness of outer space...