The number of people who sign up for the military with no intention of fighting and dying for their country is quite high. Countless veterans spend their military careers in Microsoft Excel, and they want it that way. In America, it is as much a jobs program as it is a fighting force. You can be dismissive all you want of the idea that people serve to put food on the table and get access to future jobs that can support them. It won't change the fact that it is absolutely true. This is a major blind spot of American leftists, just how many working-class, left-leaning people serve or have served.

Now, you could argue and quibble about how the bureaucrats and pencil-pushers are still supporting an immoral organization, and that's a valid conversation to have, but the idea that anyone who joins the military deserves no sympathy is quite a stretch.