That quote is a total fabrication and undoubtedly expresses the reporter’s own views. It’s so easy to make things up and then hide behind the “undisclosed source”.

As for the rest of the soldiers quotes, they aren’t expressing anything that military personel haven’t expressed throughout history, even in peace time.

I’m tired of the idiotic untopian image of a military where everyone loves each other, gets along woundrous fine and worships their NCO’s and officers. It’s never been the way of things and it never will be. Soldiers are from every walk of life and have the same spectrum of outlooks, hangups, personal clashes and problems as the rest of us. To go in now and find those very typical soldiers and make it seem that Bush is destroying that utopian military image is disingenuous at best.

I agree with Tom on this. I think the quote is a fabrication. Either that or some officer has failed to inform his subordinates of their responsibilities vis a vis the press, and that officer should be sacked.

I understand all troops gripe, and the press is hyping things.

The serious problem comes when troops gripe to the modern press, either on or off the record. And anyone going over the line in wartime, as another guy did when he said he would ask for Rumsfeld’s resignation, should be charged with insubordination. Comments like these are a spreading cancer that should be cut out. The worst comments in the 21st century get fed right back to U.S. forces en masse via real time modern communications in theater. It’s much more destructive than in previous wars.

If troops have a problem with the political aspects of their deployment time, they’re free to complain privately to their commander or congressional representatives. They should probably first watch a documentary on what their predecessors endured in WWI trenches, WWII beaches, and Vietnam jungles.

If volunteer troops can’t understand that war is a dynamic situation that may require unforseen sacrifice then they’re in the wrong business.

I actually think the comment was a caustic half-joke from a politicized Democrat who’s been listening to anti-American Democrats in the media, and who was promised anonymity by a liberal journalist. The guy probably believes the entire war was a fraud built on a lie.

I wish there were no liberal Dems in the military, but reality says there are. I think they generally keep quiet as long as things are easy for them.

The love affair between the press and the military (started by the embedding) is over. I doubt that those soldiers griping realized that their words would be turned into a liberal diatribe that hurts their daily efforts in Iraq. As a side note, I don’t think GIs are allowed to have such attitudes in public while in Uniform and on active duty.

Kal