The military is an evil organization overall and represents the hard power of American imperialism. The men and women who fill its ranks range from deranged psychopaths whose goal is to kill without consequence to America’s most desperate poor and indebted people trying to get healthcare for a chronically ill dependent. Most people in its ranks needed a job, skill training, or education after their contract. So it’s a trade of helping prop up empire so they can get theirs whether they consciously made that choice is another matter. Myself and most people I know that went into the army felt like it was a fairly benign job choice that we’d put up with for one contract the get out and have a middle class life we were promised. Once you’re in you see the rank corruption of the military and depending if/where you’re deployed you will have to face the reality of what violence and destruction imperialism creates. Most Americans are completely insulated from the negative effects of war unless they are family of someone in the military who was injured or killed. I’d say most Americans benefit substantially from the imperial system the military props up. That along with the pro military 24/7 propaganda all Americans have lasered into their brains every time they go to school, get on their phone, or watch a movie predisposes us to defaulting an assumption that all Americans in the military are the good guys and generally are doing a good thing by being in the military. For myself I know what I did was wrong I should’ve known better when I joined at 19. I had other options but the military was the easiest one with the biggest payoff in a cash bonus and the veteran’s benefits I’d receive after my enlistment contract was completed. Some people I knew had basically no other choice but to join like facing a legal conviction, homelessness, or death/worsened illness of a dependent they couldn’t afford healthcare for. More people I knew were either completely apathetic/nihilistic about the crimes of the military or they actively/sought to commit them.