Mil-newspeak or neutral term: Warfighter?

They used to be called soldiers, sailors, and then airmen.  They are military personnel and (too-long term) "members of the military"; some once were "freedom fighters".  We have our warriors, and now we have "warfighters."  Why the rebranding?

From a historical perspective, we have William Astore's analysis:

When did American troops become "warfighters" -- members of "Generation Kill" -- instead of citizen-soldiers? And when did we become so proud of declaring our military to be "the world's best"? These are neither frivolous nor rhetorical questions. Open up any national defense publication today and you can't miss the ads from defense contractors, all eagerly touting the ways they "serve" America's "warfighters." Listen to the politicians, and you'll hear the obligatory incantation about our military being "the world's best."

All this is, by now, so often repeated -- so eagerly accepted -- that few of us seem to recall how against the American grain it really is. If anything -- and I saw this in studying German military history -- it's far more in keeping with the bellicose traditions and bumptious rhetoric of Imperial Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II than of an American republic that began its march to independence with patriotic Minutemen in revolt against King George.

So consider this a modest proposal from a retired citizen-airman: A small but meaningful act against the creeping militarism of the Bush years would be to collectively repudiate our "world's best warfighter" rhetoric and re-embrace instead a tradition of reluctant but resolute citizen-soldiers.

 ...from http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174957/william_astore_generation_warfighter

If that's not to your liking or too circumspect for you, a more neutral perspective is here: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-warfighter.htm

Is it a good idea to have a professional, enlisted army?  Would the U.S. have fewer military adventures if the draft were brought back?  Consider this spectrum: temporary slave, draftee, professional soldier, mercenary.  Should the U.S. Defense Department return to its old name, "War Department"?