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I'm gonna try to play both sides here in an effort to increase understanding...here goes...
On one hand, you have soldiers who are willing to put their lives on the line for their country. You have to respect that. And in order to do that effectively, and to justify internally the sacrifices they and their families are making, they have to believe in what they're doing, they have to be willing to kill as well as die for their mission, and they have to have a certain kind of gallows humor to make it out mentally intact, and even that doesn't always work. I appreciate the sacrifices of our military, and I appreciate their willingness to serve their country.
One the other hand, just because the soldiers have to believe in what they are doing doesn't mean that the rest of us have to swallow our morals and toe the line to ease their consciences. Military service requires a level of unquestioning obedience that a lot of us out here find morally suspect when the case for killing other human beings who happen to be brown and of a different nationality has not been adequately defended.
So while their willingness to serve commands a certain amount of automatic respect, I don't think it ought to exempt them from basic moral considerations. If willful killing other human beings requires a certain amount of dehumanization of both sides, we owe it to our soldiers to examine closely if the mental, emotional and moral cost to our troops is worth what they're fighting for, particularly if their role as defenders/attackers requires that they silence their own ability to question.
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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