When I read the ABC story - grumblers in the 3rd Infantry Division giving out their names - I knew it was only a question of time:

The retaliation from Washington was swift.

"It was the end of the world," said one officer Thursday. "It went all the way up to President Bush and back down again on top of us. At least six of us here will lose our careers."

And they should. Military tradition dictates a public silence of critiques - from the sullen loudmouths to the legimately worried. Modern military history presents far worse conditions for soldiers, such as the 101st Airborne holding Bastogne, Belgium against the uncompromising German armored advance during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and January 1945. Soldiers stayed in fixed positions, exposed to frigid wintertime conditions for weeks without adequate clothing, ammunition, food or supplies. No one enjoyed the merciless trial of the elements and the aggregates - but not a single one surviving will to this day make an admission of despair, let alone accept that they needed to be "rescued" from George S. Patton's 3rd Army. Or be sent home.

The Army will be far better without soldiers who sought out a television crew to complain about their mission.