Governments around the developed world have been asking this question ever more, lately.
a short history lesson (pics to come soon)
We humans are little more than glorified animals, and fratricidal too. Back in the old days, people were told to go kill other people because they were of a different religion. That's the basis of the crusades (8th to 13th centruries), and the war in Iraq.
We developed our critical faculties and found our way out of following priests into war but then we began to think of ourselves as nations and countries and so our rich politicians, 'democrats' and non, told us to go kill somebody because.. well, just because. Usually, the untold story was that they had economic differences with their enemies. You know, gold, oil (see Iraq & Afghanistan) territory, colonial control of Africa. That concept maxed out after the world wars and fell into the background over the last decades.
Children are taught not to fight, spit, swear, be sexist, beat up queers etc.
With arguments like that, our parents, and education system have tried to make their rabid hormone-addled teenagers become a peace-loving part of society, with the threat of jail if they screw up. We follow the legal & moral codes of a sane, liberal society. We are sane and liberal, but our UK government ministers aren't. They dunk their employees in the same sh*t; it's a satanic baptism. If you decide to collect your paycheck from the Ministry/Department of Defense, all the rules governing your behaviour change.
If you are in the US or UK army, it cannot be any clearer that you are the bagmen for your upper classes' desire to become richer. You're fighting and dying so as to fill their bank accounts. That's almost excusable, if you're poor or an idiot.
The problem is they put you in harms way, forcing you to kill innocent people. There's upwards of a million killed in Iraq, most of them civilians.
Frankly, you're also a political tool designed to keep Arabs and Muslims down. How does that jibe with the rules taught to us by our parents and society? It's pretty freakin hypocritical, if you ask me. Soldiers have no morals.
Today, there are lots of people who are peace-loving and who would never kill anybody. They are the coolest people alive. There's no war, so, they are not conscientious objectors. The C.O.s from the world wars were very brave people; people who believed in ideals and people who probably knew that their government was as guilty as the other side.
It's never been clearer than today with the US and UK. Both have soldiers revolting and hiding to avoid another tour.
You could say, in realpolitik, that a country needs soldiers to promote its interests and having no presence in the world welcomes attack. I don't believe that. We've got spies for killing and looking after that bullsh*t. Soldiers are for total control and intimidation.
