An auld soldier offered up his opinion in email:

I almost posted a comment on your blog regarding all the whining coming from the troops in Iraq. They are the best paid, best supported (including by the public at large), least uncomfortable; and at least statistically for combat arms folks, at the lowest risk of death of any wartime army in US history. Not that I am unappreciative of what they are doing, but danger & discomfort are relative & it would help if they had a better sense of what troops endured at places like Gettysburg, Meuse-Argonne, The Ardennes & Okinawa, the first six months in Korea, Ia Drang Valley & War Zone D in the 60's.

This Auld Soldier is a veteran of both the mostly un-noticed war of the last century and of the most contentious war of the last century - who has more stitches for one of his seven Purple Hearts than a Certain Politician required for all three of his, along with a Silver Star and just under three years of combat exposure...