West Point Cadet Quits

[Angrboda]

I personally would not cut it as a soldier. Military training is ultimately about battle readiness, the last thing you want is the trooper next to you wondering if this fighting is morally justifiable you need that soldier to act.
Because of this all the military training I know about is about breaking the individual down so much that they just view themselves as part of the team (as much as possible) and will act as such. This means whatever affiliations a cadet may have on entering the armed forces are kicked the shit out of.
Often civilians have a nice picture of war where one side shoots the other and they die. On the battlefield there are parts of people, some of them still conscious, screening for their mothers burning and dying in terrible pain which can take days. And one is your best mate, but you have got go and do your bit, and you have to go off and stab an enemy soldier in the face with your bayonet, because he won't get out your way, because he is just a kid and knows no better. All you need to get ready for that is a few goes on the playstation, and we can all keep our nice morals intact.
Yes the training leads to abuses, that you get a little clique, that will abuse their positions to force an agenda on those around them. Most military forces struggle with this in one way or another, the best can take time to identify it the worst don't bother, because the outlawing of the conditions that the cliques thrive in, are also the conditions that the military need to make the soldier battle ready.

I think this guy was probably singled out for his atheism, in fact I would be surprised if he were not, just as it would surprise me if a strong catholic or any other way of thinking was not abused in just the same way. That is what being a soldier is about.

"About what one can not speak, one must remain silent."

— Ludwig Wittgenstein