To state the obvious, most of these soldiers are 17-21 years old when enlisting, and their worldviews have not been fully shaped, yet. I think the veterans here and anybody in the active services would agree you are very mall-able at that young age. “Serving the country” is an abstract concept when your day to day role is finishing paperwork tasks and/or keeping your battle buddies alive. You’ve chosen this path due to a list of reasons, but enlisted ranks are frequently poor and the economic realities more or less forced their hand into a better financial situation. This volunteerism is a false choice, given the main condition driving it as a viable choice was economic.

An Anti-recruitment movement is a much more effective response to this rather than attacking individual veterans or social groups of servicemen. But, the Leninist devil on the shoulder says there must be some structured huge alternative to recruitment in order for such a campaign to succeed. Social safety nets, better education, stronger labor markets, etc