I agree that soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen (probably Coasties, too) will gripe at any provocation. Hell, when I was stationed at Fort Meade, MD in 1978, we had one of the best chow halls in the military. It won the Hennesy (sp) Trophy more than once for the excellent food. Still, we'd gripe. "What, prime rib AGAIN?!" A few months later, I was transferred to Ramstein AB, Germany, where the food literally made me violently ill about a dozen times in 2 years. I guess it was karmic payback.

That said, the troops in Kuwait and Iraq have a lot to gripe about. It's damned dangerous, the temperature pushes 130 F, there's blowing sand all over the place, and they (rightfully) figure they've done their part. It's time for some of the stateside troops to rotate incountry and let those currently there go home.

As for the other story, the name Brown and Root is familiar. A friend of mine was a mercenary pilot in Southeast Asia for most of the 1960s. He told me about Brown and Root and the very lucrative construction contracts they had all over Southeast Asia. He claims that one of the biggest stockholders was Lady Bird Johnson. According to him (and other pilots I've met), that's how LBJ went to Washington as a man of modest means and retired worth over $40 million. I don't know about the credability of this source, but it seems to be in line with my friend's recollections.