O'Shea is more interested in making glib comments and sarcastic insights than in detailing the trenches of today with the history and death that they saw. It is easy for any of us to say what was useless and unnecessary and to view those who laid down their lives with contempt. It is harder to break the war down to its human element...each man who fought. If one is looking for a narrative on this war without the intellectual haughtiness of one who has never enlisted in the military then avoid this book and pray O'Shea is not in your regiment in case of war.