Not remotely a defense of the game/series, but it was pretty typical of Command and Conquer. That franchise has always been about absurd caricature and edge, and the Generals series was just their attempt to transplant that onto what they perceived as the "real world" of the day. IMO you can see some of this tone in the original Command and Conquer game as well, before it went all sci-fi, and absolutely it's a huge part of the Red Alert series.