I always throw up a little in my mouth when someone misuses Jesus's statement, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends," (John 15:13) as a tribute to the military.  Jesus was not speaking of the military when he said this; he was speaking of himself.  Jesus was arrested, incarcerated, tried, tortured and executed by the military because he challenged the power structures of his day, which relied on military violence to impose their will upon others.  Jesus knew that by exposing them as systems of oppression, they would kill him.  They did kill him, and then they co-opted him.

-DC