To continue a discussion begun in class today, what is the function of violence in Starship Troopers?

Of note:
-Suffrage was available only to those who completed their 2(+) years of voluntary service.
-Those who wish to serve a term of service can participate in non-overtly-violent ways (as terraformers, technicians, logistics, and human guinea pigs).

So, is violence the only way to gain merit in this society?
Well, we only see through the narrator's perspective, who quickly learns that "The Mobile Infantry is the Army. All the others are either button pushers or professors, along merely to hand us the saw; we do the dirty work" (p. 39). His account of transformation throughout boot camp resounds with descriptions of physical labor; along the way characters settle a multitude of power struggles with hand-to-hand combat (e.g. introduction of sergeant Zim, the showerroom scene with Ace). Juan earns real respect only after his first drop, and his father's love is only clear when his father risks his own life as a member of the MI. Again and again it's the willingness to engage in violence (interestingly, success doesn't seem to matter as much) that 'separates the men from the boys.'

Clearly this story sticks close to its moral that a man earns respect by demonstrating "through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage" (p. 182).