i found this link & felt compelled to share. this was my generation's disaster & it was close to the bone. my brother fought there & was wounded. our group of p'cola guys were right up against the draft lottery moment. as i recall, philip was going in, john sideris did go in(but didn't go over there), mike made noises about going to jail as a c.o.(yeah, right), & yours truly was heading north to canada w/my parent's support. both my brothers had served during the war. the folks didn't see sending a third jones, especially since the odds were against me at that point(one served w/o going, one served, fought & was wounded, a third was doomed). at the last moment, the lottery was suspended. philip drew #2 that year but since things were suspended, he just lived a year in his own suspense. thank god, he was never called.
there was NO public support for this war by the time we all became available. we just dodged a bullet. i think all of us forget how close we were to making some very adult decisions when we were still just kids.
vietnam was jungle warfare. iraq is desert warfare. afganistan is losing warfare, period. looking back makes me think about everything that's been lost & how nothing's been learned. that's how empires fall.
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