Military unit cohesion was preserved by suppressing political disagreement about the war.

Evidence

But at the time, Sami didn’t share his opinions widely. “I need these guys,” he concluded, “so let me shy away from it.” Most everyone followed suit. Especially after the first big fight, the movie was rarely brought up again. People’s positions on the war became clear after that, and the issues were seldom discussed. Everyone knew what would happen: more arguments, more dissension, more internal conflict. Only when Sami was in a group of like-minded soldiers would he talk about the movie, about politics, or about the reasons for their presence in Iraq. Otherwise it became an issue to be scrupulously avoided, and the soldiers tried to focus on something else. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 292

Categorization

• XREF: Maps onto the book’s broader theme of Arab American identity being split along public/private lines, and onto Milgram’s finding about the informational cost of avoiding divisive topics.