Well, I don't think soldiers by default are instantly heroes just because they're soldiers. I mean, they weren't conscripted into the army, so they voluntarily chose to sign up, they knew they wouldn't see their loved ones, but they decided to fight anyway, and I guess the question is "what is their motivation in joining?". It'd be a bit naive to think that the motivation for every soldier joining is "I love my country and want to protect it", really only a few soldiers I believe would of joined under that explicit motivation. A lot of soldiers join because they feel it's an occupation they can get behind, they might not like, or be able to do, office jobs and white collar jobs so they seek more labor oriented jobs, they usually don't want to be like a builder or construction worker so they decide to join the army, as it is a "noble" profession to have. A lot of soldiers join the army because their family has a history of joining the army and so they're compelled to join the army based on their family heritage. Lots more join the army because, well, tbh, they think it's a cool thing to be a soldier and be like "yeah, I kill people for a living", they think the combat will be fun, this motivation of joining the army has been around since WW1.
There's a lot of motivations of fighting but "doing what I want for my noble country because I'm a good person" is rarely one of them, war heroes exist and they deserve our respect, but not EVERYONE in the army instantly deserves respect for just BEING in the army. You should check out the miniseries "Generation kill", it portrays a quite realistic and interesting portrayal of what army soldiers these days are actually like, it's not really bias against army soldiers and to help prove that many of the REAL army soldiers that these characters are based off acted in the series.