[@Nightrunner]Neither, really. You control expendable characters within your military force. Your nation's control over these characters is represented in the form of (for example) orders from higher up that your characters have no control over. Think of your nation as a story device for characters [i]within[/i] the military. 

I should be doing a fairly standard example of what I mean by this in the first post, so if i'm not being too clear just hold tight, it'll all become clear soon. 

Also, feel free to designate native fauna of your own accord. I feel like creative freedom should be tantamount in that area. I mean wildlife is pretty diverse on earth, so the collective effort of the players in designing such shouldn't seem too wild. 

EDIT: Basically what VoiD said. This allows us to represent soldiers as real people with varied motives and perspectives on the war.