So today's Memorial Day in the States, a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the nation.

Memorial Day always reminds me of the mid-1980s when I was a kid in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. Each year we'd march in the local Memorial Day parade. The Veterans, or at least the active Veterans, were all from WWII and the Korean War. They were all older, grandfatherly. Lord knows where the Vietnam veterans were. But anyway, when I think of "Veterans" I think of men in their 60s and 70s.

The VFW Post is around the corner from the house where I grew up. It's a huge, menacing cinderblock building next to the baseball field where we used to play little league. I remember five or six years ago when I was visiting home from California I drove by the sturdy VFW building and wondered if it was even necessary any more, as the veterans from WWII and Korea were passing away at a rapid rate and, again, the Vietnam folks didn't seem to be too active.

You probably can guess where I'm going with this.

Did I telegraph it too much?

I'll try not to get too political here, but the website iCasualties.org reports that 4081 Americans have died in the Iraq War since March of 2003. (Of course that's only a fraction of the estimated 42,195 Iraqi civilian deaths since March of 2005, but let's not go there today).

And those are the men and women who died. Think of all of the new Veterans we're making with this new war. (And with the first Gulf War, as well).

I know we have a Veterans Day too, but I today let's not forget either the living or the dead.

Even if we think this is an unjust and illegal war.

(Oops, that was kinda political ...)