Memes

I guess it depends on what you mean by "defend". I can't speak for others, but for me, it's not about defending them morally, as in "they should be excused because they were pushed into it." It's more about the practicality of it and how much potential they have for change. If somebody was driven toward it cause of poverty and didn't understand what they were getting into until they're already deployed, that doesn't excuse things they do on behalf of the empire. It doesn't change the fact that people who did wrong need a mechanism for being held accountable, especially by the people who they wronged. What it does mean is that they're probably more capable of change and more apt to have guilt about what they directly or indirectly participated in.

On the other hand, if somebody is a rabid, bloodthirsty weapon of imperialism, they would surely be one of the last ones it'd ever occur to me to try to reach out to or change.

That said, I completely agree that Yankees are largely insulated from the wars themselves and it makes us varying shades of clueless (I say us cause I live there myself). I would venture to say, in fact, that what's going on with Iran is one of the few times they haven't been and it's still insulation from attack on actual "US" soil. This time, the oil stuff is impacting things and it's harder to ignore for that reason.