From Danny Sjursen:

[D]espite former president Obama’s ongoing promises that “the tide of war is receding” and that America could finally “start nation-building at home,” nothing of the sort occurred then, or is now, under President Trump. Though the U.S. military (thankfully) no longer maintains six-figure troop counts in either Iraq or Afghanistan, American soldiers are still there, as well as serving in 70 percent of the world’s countries in one capacity or another in what has become a “generational war.”..

The military—and the Army in particular—brought some of this upon itself. As conventional ground combat elements (of which the Army owns the preponderance) withdrew from Iraq and Afghanistan, and President Obama signaled a strategic pivot to Asia, U.S. Army leaders became understandably concerned. The Asia pivot would, logically, lean more heavily on the Air Force and Navy—especially when new military doctrine took the (exclusive) name “Air-Sea Battle.” As the economy struggled and budgets tightened, the various service chiefs fought to convince Congress and administration kingmakers of their continued “relevance.” If the Army didn’t appear busy—engaged in a countless number of vital missions—well, it’d be hard to justify its current budget.

It should come as no surprise that around this time the Army touted the versatility of its Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF) brigades—units trained and tailored to support an array of missions for specific geographic combatant commanders…

When Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise holiday season visit to Kabul and publicly praised U.S. forces in Afghanistan, one observer described the crowd as “subdued,” and noted “several troops stood with their arms crossed or their hands folded behind their backs and listened, but did not applaud.”..

The all-volunteer force was always a devil’s bargain: by cutting out the citizenry in the form of a draft out of the equation, presidents, pols, and military leadership could move soldiers around the chessboard with fewer checks on their authority and the decision-making process.

From the comments:

The common ground is that Trump supporters that I have spoken with want less money spent on foreign war, foreign police actions, foreign / military aid, foreign bases…

Trump promised to focus on America – stop immigration, protect American jobs, rebuild infrastructure. Instead he’s fighting wars for Israel and Saudi Arabia…

Let me quickly count how many of these countries are actual threats to the USA… counting… hmmm… weird, came up with zero.

So these servicemen aren’t protecting America. Then they’re really not heroes per se. So what do we call people with guns who go around murdering other people?..

We need universal conscription so that the neocon burden of endless wars may be shared equally with our “diversities.”..

The US military has participated in unconstitutional and illegal wars of aggression, it has accepted and strove to implement unconstitutional and illegal policies of “preventive” wars of choice, and it is actively participating in atrocities such as the collective punishment of Yemen, and is supporting illegal combatants such as the CIA drone operations.