Agreed. In fact, part of my motivation for becoming a civil servant was the belief that it's better to work for your country rather than die for it.

Now I'm in the European Commission, in the department which inter alia runs the Socrates programme, thanks to which approximately one million European students have spent at least a term in another country, the Youth programme which promotes cooperation between youth clubs and organisations, and the European voluntary service which helps young people to spend time doing voluntary work in another country, so it's not all bad!