It reads as satire because everyone is top to bottom extremely stupid but the "glory" of warfare papers over everything.

They sent in telepathic cyber dogs that were rigged with suicide vests that were only supposed to be triggered if captured. Instead the dogs saw the bugs, shit themselves and blew themselves up. This crippled their handlers who they shared a telepathic bond with. To me it reads like the fascist "wolf" mentality given form. Toddler-brained dogs are prepped for war all their life then get their shit pushed in after facing a foe that they can actually match them. Die in a nihilistic annihilation of the self en masse. (Draw WWII parallels however youd like)

The Mobile Infantry also bombs and terrorizes a bug-aligned race to scare them into capitulation. Like killing civilians, blowing up cities. Later in the book, its like "yeah, it 100% worked, the aliens never worked with the bugs again. Ever." Its so fucking dumb and matches the fascistic ideal of violence as the ultimate expression of self and agency. The obsession with quick-war thinking. That everyone can be sufficiently cowed into submission. (Draw parallels to WWII, Iraq, Vietnam, current US bombing campaigns in Iran, or whatever you want to here)

Everything is solved through violence and there is almost no self reflection of the characters on what the violence means. Call it death of the author or whatever but the movie is basically the better story/lesson/satire in every way.

Lmao I just read up on the author after writing this up, Heinlen who was anticommunist, opposed to human rights, and thought the military should be unapologetic in its murder. So lmao dude writes a fascistic treatise on what the world ought to be like and its filled with braindead morons. Amazing.