Yeah, I see our veterans and fallen as victims rather than heroes, at least since Vietnam, when it was no longer clear we weren't the baddies.

By the time of the Gulf war and the Iraq war, it was clear we were poking our guns into places they didn't belong at costs the US couldn't afford, and we did anyway. And PMCs and torture made it super clear the US was the baddies.

I got closely acquainted with vets with TBIs (being a civilian TBI victim, myself) and the DVI did fuck-all for them, which was a disappointment since solders were coming home IED victims often with TBIs by the tens of thousands (but they survived, which means they weren't counted among our dead). The hope was the military was going to lead the way when it came to treatment and we civvies would ride on the coat-tails. Nope.

And that's how counter-recruitment writes itself.