We are around the same age (over 50), meaning that as kids the Vietnam war was going on / near ending. That was also when the draft ended. We lived through the 80s when the talk of nuclear war with the USSR was common.

Compulsary military service keeps the citizenry much more engaged in what wars the country is starting.

Truman dropped the bomb, but fired MacArthur rather than risk WWIII over Korea. Ike also rejected a nuclear exchange and risking WWIII. JFK famously compromised with the USSR rather than risk WWIII over missiles in Cuba. I think it is no coincidence that those are the last three US presidents with combat experience.

Compromising with bad actors sucks. But that is the real world we live in. Sometimes the risk of fighting is worse than compromising with someone you believe is in the wrong, because noone wins in a nuclear war. We've forgotten that lesson as a nation. I hope we remember before it is too late.