Why would anyone want to send their children to die in pointless wars of a regime that hates them and everything they stand for?
So, why would I discourage my kids from joining a great organization? How many people in the Navy have died in combat after WW2?
The thing is, if you don't want to risk your life, but you still want to join the US military, there are plenty of positions in the military where you don't risk your life.
> regime that hates them and everything they stand for?
Well, that's you opinion. You are entitled for it. "Entitled" meaning here, there is a certain piece of paper that guarantees your right to have and express your opinion. Piece of paper that would be worth less than a piece of toilet paper, if not for the US military.
After WWII, only a tiny minority of wars fought by the US were in self-defense. Most of the time the military was on foreign soil of countries that never attacked the US. The most their justifications amounted to were terrorist attacks, to which it responded with full invasions that left millions dead.
It took half a century, but people are just not buying "we have to fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here" anymore.
If you used the same threshold for what justifies an invasion against the US, as the US does to other countries.. well, you wouldn't mind Chinese drones and bombers flying overhead, liberating you, would you? It's either that, or their constitution becomes worthless.
It's surrounded on two sides by ocean, and its neighbors are very friendly.
The secesion war was fought by actors. /s