Then "most kids today" are a heck of lot smarter than all of you were. Fighting, and potentially dying, for the benefit of the Military-Industrial Complex, and for a political elite who actually despises you, is a fool's errand.
"Patriotism," as you seem to envision it, is rancid idolatry.
It has nothing to do with intelligence. I did well in high school and simply chose to develop my country.
I was not motivated by the military complex. Yes, I know full well that there are a lot of people getting rich off of wars we shouldn’t get involved in. That’s a completely different story.
My issue is about patriotism, and I take offense that anyone would even imply that I was an idiot that let the politicians make me do it, or that I wasn’t intelligent enough to make up my own mind about what I wanted to do for my country.