"American soldiers would never do horrible things because we're good, nation-loving people!"
I see where he made some generalizations about who is recruited these days and how. He is absolutely right and today's military recruiting processes are astronomically different than the one's you are talking about. Both in who is recruited and the training received. No it isn't full proof and yes many soldier will truck along to get their pay check. I would say more than 50% would defect to the "civilian" side based on my experience, but I also tended to hang out with and be around the soldiers with higher intelligence because of my job/duties.
I find it odd that you use patriotism and nationalism the way you do as well. You seem to be saying the argument comes from "CUZ MURICA," but if it were I think it would have the exact opposite affect. That would actually provide more obedience to the government. Instead, what you have is an appeal to humanity.
Soldiers are not the criminals and dregs of society they were a hundred years ago. Still not the brightest overall, sure, but we no longer actively hunt/force criminals into service. Where once upon a time a military would recruit any abled body, we now even have minimum IQ requirements which automatically rule out the bottom 10%.
Just a few small points in a vast sea of rational thoughts one could have on the matter. Rationality and facts are a great thing to hearken to, but the fact is we aren't even capable of such a cohesive effort society wide. Hell, you (and I) can hardly manage it in our personal lives. I know you probably THINK you do, but a bit of studying the neuro sciences will quickly teach you differently. People should and must be controlled by emotional stimuli or it all falls apart. My big fat gun in someone's face is great emotional stimuli (joke). Emotional stimuli being different from feeling... But boy I'll be off on a long ass tangent if I kept it up.
Sportsmanship killed CF