Uniform death

There was a time when battles were fought between groups of men wearing uniforms. While the clothing was in some cases sold to both sides by one and the same company, the uniforms were deliberately different; usually the colors contrasted, so that the soldiers, and as often as not they were mercenaries on the one side could see who it was they needed to kill, on the other side. This form of warfare runs like a red thread through western history from the American War of Independence, through Waterloo, to the Vietnam War. It assumed there was a clear “them” and an even more clear “us”. And things only got complicated if someone put on their outer uniform inside out and thus became a turncoat.

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