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I am currently working on a novel about interstellar total war against alien biomechanical Von Neumann machine in the 2330s.
In the plot, the UNE (United Nations of Earth) government decides to provide emotion-suppressing drugs to soldiers fighting on the brutal planetary front lines in order to maintain their fighting ability.
But is it realistically possible to suppress emotions with drugs while maintaining athletic ability and judgment?
athletic ability
Mayyyyyyyybe. Most suppresants massively impact reaction time.
judgement
Probably. Not overly easy. But probable.
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That ignores both soldier and general psychology.
1) What keeps generals from ordering their soldiers into a meat grinder is mostly reputation. Yadda yadda a million is a statistic
2) What keeps soldiers from utterly brutalizing enemies (aside from training and reputation) is the enemy being able to be anthropmorphized.
A Van Neumann that's not humanoid wouldn't need emotion suppressants unless it figured out how to make its warriors into cute animals or little girls nor would generals hesitate to send them in en masse.