"sometimes criticism of war gets rebuked for saying that the death of soldiers is for a poor reason, which makes their sacrifice less in some views."

I've long been amazed when people take this stance. Logically, if soldiers die fighting a war that is inherently a bad idea, they did indeed die for a poor reason. But that's not faulting the soldiers at all -- it's faulting those who put them into the war. If anything, being in that situation makes the soldier's sacrifice even greater.