Question from my friend about existence of God

[abaris]

Regardless of how we might feel about the uses of a military force, the fact is that a person who volunteers to serve in a military force is pledging his life to a non-selfish cause, that of protecting his nation. How the nation chooses to define that "protection" is another matter.

No, it isn't. Not from my point of view, which is from a country that stood on the wrong side in two world wars. That's why I made a distinction between personal motivation and national (ab)use. I would be hard pressed to name any just cause the US stood for since WWII. Not as abysmally wrong as Germany in WWII, but not furthering the cause of humanity either.

Also, there's a famous Hermann Goering quote about soldiers going to war for their country and how to motivate them. He said that to the shrink Gilbert at Nuremberg. It's eerily fitting the bill of American propaganda to convince the population they're fighting a just war.

That's not supposed to be anti American, only anti nationalism and anti government, which sends their young people into fights that weren't necessary in the first place.