The US abolished direct military conscription, but has replaced it
with an
indirect system of economic conscription: young people from
poor backgrounds often see no opportunity to get ahead except
through the army.
The article is mistaken on a couple of important points. First, Nixon
did damp down the movement to end the Vietnam War, by pulling the US
army out of Vietnam, but that was not the permanent effect that the
article presents. The US antiwar movement was quite strong for the
first few years of the occupation of Iraq.
It also omits another, deeper blindness about thanking troops for
"serving their country" -- for the most part, that's not what they are
doing. And, in Iraq, many of them figured that out; (then) Bradley
Manning was far from alone. A soldier wrote to me, responding to
what he saw in stallman.org, saying that the troops in his unit
felt that they were in Iraq to support an empire.
I think we should offer troops condolences rather than thanks.
Many of them joined up intending to serve their country, and
they were cheated of the opportunity.