So what? You have met a single guy with an eccentric minority view about the military. For every ex-military person with similar views, there are dozens, if not

So what? You have met a single guy with an eccentric minority view about the military. For every ex-military person with similar views, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people who have been in the exact same military, and who have reached completely opposite conclusions. Telling a story about a single persons's opinions is not a convincing argument about "what's wrong with the military", and his conclusions certainly don't make him braver or smarter than any other member or ex-member of the U.S. armed forces who thinks differently. The impression I get from this is that you were anti-military long before you have met this "friend", and that his is the only opinion you consider "brave" because it's the only one that conforms to, and reinforces, your already pre-existing world view.