On Tuesday 12 August 2003 13:07, Steve Schear wrote:

Through email and chat rooms a picture is emerging of day-to-day gripes, coupled with ferocious criticism of the way the war has been handled. They paint a vivid picture of US army life that is a world away from the sanitized official version.

Just bear in mind that it's the grunt's time-honored right to gripe. Gripe about the food, about the weather, about the sergeants, about the officers, about the weapons, about the mission, about anything under the sun. Doesn't mean anything of itself. That said, they have more reason than usual to gripe. Not the overseas posting in a beastly climate, nor even the mission. It's the jerking around. "You'll be coming home next month." "Make that the month after." "Probably be a year, all told." If the pols and the brass had said up front that the troops would be there a year, there'd have been plenty of bitching by both soldiers and civilians but the overall effect would have been less than what's happening now. Army manning a year or two hence ought to be interesting. -- Steve Furlong Computer Condottiere Have GNU, Will Travel "If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that these people have these weapons at all!" -- Rep. Henry Waxman