It was the joke.
No wonder I missed it. Not saying its your fault.
But those are by good writers.I mean, even if you want to claim the story is about Featherston, he's very shallow. If you think of Hitler, Stalin, etc. they had goals that went beyond "punching America!"
I'm not even sure you can call it interesting, and I'd note that there are plenty of stories which have characters that aren't cardboard cutouts on the best sellers lists...