I have to assume you are too young to remember the draft. There was a process. It started with registration (which you should still have done at 18). There were letters sent, later lottery numbers were sent out, then lottery held...etc. All before physicals. I get the feeling you think this was some sort of cattle roundup. It wasn't and oh by the way America was at war and needed soilders. Too many of the youth of this nation were busy dropping acid and rolling in the mud at concerts to care. Hmmmm that sounds familiar....You can google WWII, Korean War and Vietnam for more info....
I too remember the draft, and I was a participant in the lottery the first year it ran - only ran about 5 years IIRC. Had a high draft number (261) so I never had to do the cattle call thing.
How about the autobahn being based on the ROMAN road system? Two thousand years earlier.
There is an awful lot of history before the Nazi's. In fact of a lot of German history before the Nazi's. Try European, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, hey even American history...etc.
You can find all sorts of parallels between any two cultures because we happen to share the same DNA. Folks all over and for all time pretty much behave the same way. Scum bags are scum bags and good folk are good folk. Doesn't matter where on the globe you point. It doesn't mean there is some grand cabal running the show.
As a start let's all read from the Code of Hammurabi...FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO....same problems, different society.
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM
Too many people think the world started in the 20th century on the shores of the Atlantic.
As a former archeologist and an amateur historian, I am well aware of the role of many societies in forming this culture today. But there comes a time when you have to deal with facts. Eisenhower is quoted as directly attributing his idea for the interstate system on the autobahns in Germany. Did the Germans copy it from the Romans? Or the Greeks or the Nazca lines, or maybe from the linear motifs on the Shang Dynasty bronzes. Doesn't really matter - Eisenhower is on record as crediting his idea to the German system he personally witnessed.
As the song says - everything old is new again.
One thing that troubles me, 1776, is that at a point in our history where we must be vigilant, where there is evidence that we could be being manipulated, you actually say things like "It doesn't mean there is some grand cabal running the show." Truth is, we may never have definitive, stand up in court proof until (a) it's too late or (b) we successfully thwart the efforts without even realizing who or where. If the British officer had killed Hitler in the 30's things would have been very different. But he did not, and we now see clearly the evil he brought to this world.
To battle evil, you must first acknolwedge that it exists.
Occam's Razor would seem to indicate you are right, there are lots of reasons why we are as a country where we are. But the recent election, along with the continued bailouts, tells informed people that something is seriously wrong in this country. Can it be explained through simple venality? Possibly. But so many things have progressed so far down a specific path, then other options must be considered. As a scientist, I go where the facts lead me, not where my preconceived notions would have me go.