Inspector confuses former American soldier. (8)
I believe the answer is:
examiner
'inspector' is the definition.
(I know that inspector can be written as examiner)
'former american soldier' is the wordplay.
'former' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'soldier' becomes 'miner' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ex'+'a'+'miner'='EXAMINER'
'confuses' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for examiner that I've seen before include "Meaner XI (anag)" , "Newspaper" , "One in charge of test" , "Tester of knowledge" , "One administering test" .)