That could be said about the Nazis in World War 2...I have no doubt, some were normal soldiers doing exactly what you were doing, just protecting his buddy left and right..............However in the grand scheme of things, is safe to say that the Nazis soldiers contributed/helped evil, regardless if they hated hitler and were just fighting to protect his family/friends/"freedoms".........Them fighting, contributed to evil.
Having said that, does that mean, every Nazi WW2 was an evil POS genocidal maniac? Of course not, like I said some were just normal people drafted into war with no choice, caught in the ripples of time..........but IMO even they have to zoom out and realize that they contribute to a shit genocidal government....that their actions were very direct in helping that effort.
The same can be said about American Soldiers.....I don't think you people are evil, I think you are just normal people doing a job....However many of you have this "I'm innocent and just following commands" mentality, and I get that how it should be in war, specially when shit gets real and people have to act quickly....However you aren't innocent, you sadly contributed to a shit situation in the grand scheme of things, and I ain't blaming you at all for what happened, but sadly you got caught up in that shitshow, it sucks, that's life and I don't hate you people for it just like I don't hate the average Nazi,Japanese,(insert army) soldier, most were normies just fighting for the next man next to em, and have been indoctrinated to follow a nation/rulers.....It's the Leaders who deserve the hate but foot soldiers ain't innocent....Responsibility exist for everybody.......Look you can also say American civilians are also some-what responsible for being duped, etc, we are in charge of politics/politicians who pushed this, so we aren't 100% innocent either.
I believe this......If shit actually got real, I mean like a real war with russia/china, something that actually threatens freedom, our military would protect us for sure, and they would kickass (hopefully we haven't faced a top 10 country in years, we been facing cans)....I would be very thankful.........however, I don't think most people join for that, it's for money/college/somewhat guided path lol.