The military targets the youth for a couple of reasons:
(a) They are strong, fit, better able to deal with the rigors.
(b) Minds in formation, therefore better shaped into the needed mindset.
Which is all well and done. The nation needs a well trained Armed Forces, and it is quite stupid to try to get rid of it - we wouldn't last 10 minutes, since Canada and Mexico would carve us up like Russia and Germany did with Poland.
However, families willingly use their influence on their members, and allow them to participate in this activity on one condition:
(c) That the leadership committed to this task is educated, moral, and honest with the soldiers.
When this is broken, the bond of trust between the populace and officer corps (which includes, by extension, the elected civilian leadership) is violated, and then the enlistment becomes one made under false pretenses.
In other words, Cindy Sheehan's crusade is couched on these concepts, and the fact that it was her SON that was taken in this misbegotten adventure lends her special authority.
Perhaps you would like to read this:
http://www.iep.utm.edu/w/war.htmIt is good to study philosophy. You will find many answers to why you have that uneasy feeling about how things are going - your intuition points at a truth, and all you need is to be able to verbalize it.