We need to start defending kids against recruiters' pitches. Really bad things happen to lots of people who get pumped up with patriotism and suckered into situations that ruin their lives. They volunteer - but they are never told the extent to which hundreds of thousands have had their entire lives wasted by the devastation that comes with military service.
Patriotism is the potential recruit's gravest enemy. It is what will persuade him or her to submit self and loved ones to utter ruin as a result of political folly. It will have nothing to do with defense of freedom.

"(I) never knew there were worse things than dying"
-Eric Bogle. Waltzing Matilda