From a national point of view a dead solider is much prefered to a captured one.
Hundreds of soliders died in Lebanon, 10 were captured alive.
The 10 captives caused more demage, in tactical and moral terms than hundreds of dead soliders. I'm not even talking about leaked information.
Being dead is probably better for the army, the state, the families and the soliders themselves.

I'm not saying that soliders should kill themselves, giving soliders cyanide will cause infinite moral damage. I'm saying that your cynicism has no place - we do prefer dead soliders - and it has nothing to do with erection.