The more honorable and ethical people we put in uniforms the better off the nation will be. You might find yourself in a position where you are ashamed of and hate the things you are asked to do someday but if a person who didn't feel that way was given the same assignment he would do less to mitigate the harm which his necessary actions cause. So many of the people I've known who were going to join or were in the military were boneheads who lived an unexamined life. It distresses me to think of the things they might do. I've known a few people who were going to join the military that I felt confident would be a force for good in an organization that by it's nature and function is a so often a force of exploitation, suffering and destruction. I predict that if you join the military you will put positive pressure on a system in which rides a very fine line between good and evil but it might not be good for you.
Thanks for this perspective. In the last week or so I've been expressing these concerns to everyone, and this is the most helpful insight I've come across. I wrote a lengthy response just now but removed it, since you basically read my mind anyway. I hope I can be a positive pressure on whats happening around me, without compromising my performance and becoming the sort of cynic that held me back in high school. That'll be the biggest challenge out of all of them at WP :P