Killing people in the Middle East who pose zero threat to your home = heroes.

There's something you fundamentally don't get about the US, the source of our power, and the world as a whole. And that's OK, because most people don't get it. It's not taught to people because it's not some highfalutin ideal that we like to pretend we have. It's raw control. The global economy? That's the US economy. We literally own the whole world economy. Everywhere business is done, it's done according to our rules on the playing field we created and that we manage. So why is a conflict in the Middle East an issue we should take an interest in? Because it threatens either the system directly or the stability of the system. That can't be allowed because instability breeds more instability. Like a crack in a window: you have to address the issue immediately so that it doesn't spread and shatter. How do we do that? With old fashioned control. Reset the local playing field, set it in the right direction, and we're back to normal. That is what drives the US economy.

Being part of the political theatre of people who pose an existential threat to your home = blameless grunts.

Sure, but knowing now what I just told you, would you sacrifice our nation's power just to avoid taking part in conflict or looking bad? Would the trade off be worth it? Because nature abhors a power vacuum, and when you're out of power you naturally have no say over who comes INTO power or what they do with it. Could be China. Do you want that? Or is the game we've been playing preferable, albeit unsavory?

They are not heroes

Never said they were. Most are lost little children who have no idea what they're doing. They just see the benefits and are attracted like moths to the flame. And that makes them good soldiers. It's better if most of them never question what they're being used for. It'd be harder to use them if they did. And they're certainly not going to understand or accept the reality I just told you, so it's better to keep them in the dark, throw a bit of money and some medals at them, and tell them they did good so they can die happy, either on some far away battlefield or at home when they're old. It's basically like in The Matrix, where Neo has a choice. But in this case, the red pill doesn't wake you up in some real world. You're already in it and the red pill is just that you go on seeing the real world as it really is. The blue pill simply puts you back to sleep. Most people need the blue pill (as it is in this context) because the red pill would kill them.

They are people who enlisted to potentially go kill third worlders in exchange for financial help with college and veterans benefits. They kill for money.

You've got it backwards. They enlist to get money and they potentially have to kill in order to stay alive long enough to use it (or get awarded even more money).