I have been thinking on it; but I have a hard time considering soldiers much more than a resource for the upper echelons, similar to labor. Soldiers are granted the ability to kill, but this can evaporate overnight; and in receiving the power to kill, they relinquish freedom and choice.

In fact, I could even see them being underneath the bottom level. We are taught to see enlistment as an ascension, but is it the opposite? Consider the pyramid with the soldiers on the very bottom. Maybe add a few wounded and killed.