A regular thought on Memorial Day weekend would be to focus on some specific memorial, or memorialization of war dead in general, or memorial sentiment among warrior survivors. Here at Crabgrass war dead during my lifetime seem largely to have been deaths in vain - wasted lives on Reagan-Contra war, Bush I war (saving Kuwaiti oil), Lyndon Johnson war, Carter war (the ZB-Carter-Reagan-Obama-Trump-and-onward-Afghan war), Bush II war (Iraq), Libya, Syria, Panama, others.
You name the war, I can suggest it as unnecessary loss of life, both sides - all sides, and we'd be done. That would be easy.
So, CONSCRIPTION as a topic, making sense, because: Vietnam will be the focus. The War defining DISAPPOINTMENT and DISILLUSIONMENT over the last third of the Twentieth Century, in the U.S. of A., which lost a small fraction of the Vietnamese who died in that adventure, Dien Bien Phu and onward.
VIETNAM - The war during my lifetime that most shaped my view of government and war, has its innovative memorial. Worthwhile links: HERE, HERE, this compelling IMAGE, and HERE.
But this Wikipedia link on CONSCRIPTION, Selective Service head Gen. William Westmoreland dead now and hooray for that, "faded away" as Douglas MacArthur put it; that post is a celebration of the end of draftee death in pointless war, for now, with the current arrangement of an all-volunteer military continuing from Nixon to now.
Being drafted into death's jaws was a haunt that a high lottery number allowed me to avoid, bless the lottery numbers as they fell for me. Others with low numbers suffered during the down-sizing of the Draft in the death-rattle days of Vietnam after Tonkin Gulf lying, after Tet, after draft card burnings, but before Saigon fell.
I blessedly got saved from the suffering and risks by that lottery. During Johnson's "oldest first" days - when I was in my mid-20s. That is its own story, not for today.
This Wikipedia image - conscription caricatured, as practiced centuries ago.
Then this image in closing, for Memorial Day reflection and awakening while others would be beating drums and waving flags for today.
