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In Roman times and earlier, soldiers griped. There are markings in Rome and Pompeii that could have been written last week by US GIs in Iraq. The usual subjects written on the ancient walls include bad living conditions, lousy food, low pay, regulations, stupid officers, lack of citizen appreciation and ... most telling of all ... questioning the reasons for war.

In reality, no war makes any sense, especially to the young men and women who have to fight it. As a teenager in WWII, I certainly griped about all the same subjects, especially the stupid officers and how they jeopardized the lives of those they commanded.

As a college-student Reservist, I was called back for active duty in the Korean War. My rank was much higher by then and my living conditions were infinitely better. I griped, of course, but with a bit more knowledge about war ... even the really stupid Korean campaign ... my targets were the clueless civilian and military authorities in Washington who sent us to Korea with inadequate support.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your politics, there was much more GI griping in the Vietnam War, which became a total military and political disaster. There was little griping in Desert Storm, because it ended too quickly to get any gripe machines up and running. Which leads us to the current war.

Considering the similarity of testimonies by veterans of wars from Roman times to this day, it isn't difficult for reporters and politicians with their own agendas to find GIs to air their gripes. If WWII made any sense, every war since has been a series of bad political and military decisions, resulting in the deaths of thousands of young Americans.

There are certainly plenty of subjects to gripe about, and the young GIs of today certainly have every right to air them.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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