The art was oftentimes orgasmic.
It's because most of them are not really characters: they're plot devices with one or two distinguishing traits tacked on.
However, he is too overwhelmed by the emotional stress to simply stay in the military and take a role of leadership like he does in Brotherhood.
Often I had to rewatch episodes to follow along, pause scenes to process what I saw, or rewind.
This raises an interesting perspective on the series as a whole, and is one of the reasons why Brotherhood is far more of a shounen tale than the original adaptation.
Of course, things are a bit more complicated by the fact that many in the military are actually good people and are either unaware of just how bad the government is, or feel remorse for their crimes and wish to change the government.