somehow

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

That's a quote from an essay at truthdig by Kevin Tillman. Kevin, pictured above (right), and his brother Pat (left) served as Army Rangers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kevin came home in 2005. Pat came home in 2004 in a coffin.

Read the whole thing.

I'd give a month's pay to be in the same room if Kevin Tillman ever got a chance to meet George W. Bush. One of them wouldn't be able to look the other in the eye. And we all know which of those that would be.