Or you can recruit heavily in areas where folks are disadvantaged and have few options, dangling education in front of them in exchange for being willing to kill or die for you.

This is absolutely what we do in the U.S. and it's abhorrent.

I guess what I want is for nobody to be so desperate for their basic needs that they feel compelled to kill and die in war.

And if we had a country that cared for all of its citizens and didn't start wars of aggression, maybe more people would want to enlist as they have real values to protect and have a reasonable expectation that they won't be committing atrocities?

Honestly not a criticism of you or your comment. Lot's of people are advocating for the same thing; You just said it plainly.

...Anyway, this is all terrible and we absolutely can do better, starting with building community locally, mutual aid, protesting, and listening to marginalized and oppressed people's.