A wise director, whose name I have forgotten, once said that war films can never really capture the experience of warfare, they can only present a mediated representation. Trying to create a realistic war movie is a fool's errand, and McCoy and Waugh would've been better off spending more time creating an interesting story told well than to sell propaganda made poorly. This is what makes a master illusionist different than a con artist. An illusionist can give the audience something, whether it be hope or awe, and a con artist only takes whatever he can, leaving the audience wondering what just happened.
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
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