Maybe that's part of my problem. I've just never assumed anybody (or more than maybe 5%) joined the military because they want to fight for their country.The concept is so alien it is easy for me to dismiss it out of hand. Sure, I can see joining the military if, say, Canada was invading. But joining up in the hopes that a just war will come along that you can help with? I've always viewed recruitment as a dirty form economic extortion the government uses to get cannon-fodder, hence the perennial problems getting educated, skilled recruits.
Once you've joined you don't get a choice of which wars to take part in. Joining up before a war you support comes along betrays a highly dangerous faith in the ability of the government to pick just wars. The very act of signing up is explicitly one of renouncing your own moral judgment in favor of the government's. It means 'I trust the government to tell me who to kill.' (Just as terrifying, though less morally relevant, it means 'I trust the government to choose who will try to kill me.') That makes it very hard for me to take their reasoned dedication to an abstract moral cause seriously.
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Once you've joined you don't get a choice of which wars to take part in. Joining up before a war you support comes along betrays a highly dangerous faith in the ability of the government to pick just wars. The very act of signing up is explicitly one of renouncing your own moral judgment in favor of the government's. It means 'I trust the government to tell me who to kill.' (Just as terrifying, though less morally relevant, it means 'I trust the government to choose who will try to kill me.') That makes it very hard for me to take their reasoned dedication to an abstract moral cause seriously.