Wondering how you mean that?
Certainly, if unarmed people are rounded up by armed men, lined up in front of a wall and shot... those lives have been taken!
A soldier who volunteers is essentially "giving" his life, at least potentially. If he doesn't understand that, he probably isn't intelligent enough to be a soldier.
Conscripted soldiers are admittedly a grey area. In one sense, being a voluntary citizen of a country (when you are allowed to leave your country in protest of it) knowing your country conscripts troops, you are a defacto "volunteer" if you chose to continue to live there. After all, most people in free countries are allowed to determine their country's direction and policies with their vote. If they don't take that responsibility seriously, well.....
I guess my point is that if you look at this in the noblest possible way, as a volunteer you are essentially signing a blank check (or cheque to some of you) made payable to your country for an amount up to and including your life.
Given the way WWI was fought, and how frivolously it started, we could debate how "noble" any of it was, but often the motivations of the individual people were noble. That's why I don't often mind the high road being taken with regards to speeches and such because it honors those people's intent and their sacrifice. Often the nobility is found in the bonds between soldiers
One can argue that not "telling it like it was" furthers needless war. Maybe that's true. It doesn't seem to matter, though. The human race will find ways make war on each other and most of us are powerless to stop it. Even if a country or a group of people are totally in the right and trying to avoid war, war often finds them.
Forgive me this post. As an old soldier from a family of soldiers, I often get reflective as Veterans Day approaches.