If you're attributing "war fighters" to this administration, then you're mistaken. Maybe they imported it or something, I don't know, but I know for a fact that the British armed forces have been using the word for a long time. I suspect other NATO and/or commonwealth countries do as well.

It's supposed to be a generic word which doesn't imply gender or which service they're in, or precisely what they do, just generally being a label for everyone involved in carrying out war.