Questioning war

was listening to Utah Phillips the other day and he posed some questions about being against the war , fake patriotism, and the "support the troops" people. Utah was a former member of the military himself so he's no basher. One of the questions was "Why is it ok for one soldier to shoot another soldier when if one man shoots another man in the streets it is considered murder?" In my mind my response was "well, they are fighting for the land, ideals, and safety of their country." I began to think about my rationalization of war and I thought of gang violence. Gangs fight for land, money, and at times ideology so why is it ok on a mass scale ?

The second question was " How can a human being rationalize killing by saying it's not the troops fault he is just there serving his country . " That paints the troops as a mindless being who just follows what the policy is reguardless of the personal feelings they may have. Is this any different than someone who kills because his religious official tells him to or his God tells him to ?

It seems to be a taboo subject to ask these questions . Why is it a taboo "
unamerican" thing to do ? To say that it is unamerican to question these things suggests that our role as Americans is to support any war we fight and blindly follow. Any organization that makes it taboo to question it is very cult-like.