A heavy hitter such as al-Mawardi wrote that one of the duties of the caliph is to
"make jihad against those who resist Islam after having been called to it until they submit or accept to live as a protected dhimmi-community - so that Allah's rights, may He be exalted, 'be made uppermost above all [other] religion' (Qur'an 9: 33)"
(link - The Ordinances of Government, p. 28 -
http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/Al-Ahkam%20as-Sultaniyyah.pdf)
Obviously it's not for me to say that al-Mawardi is right and you are wrong or vice-versa (and there is also of course the possibility that the above is a bad translation). However it seems dishonest to deny that the traditionally militaristic aspects of jihad exist at all.
Straight off the top of my head, the second Sudanese Civil War was framed by the ruling north, led by the National Islamic Front, as a jihad against the non-Muslim south. There are plenty of other examples in recent times where Muslim rulers have invoked
jihad in times of warfare. Whether or not the appeals were genuine or cynical is up for debate of course.