In telling B.D.'s story, G. B. Trudeau has done more for the troops than almost any cartoonist. I was pleased to see him add
The Sandbox to his site at Slate.com. The Sandbox is updated with blog entries from our troops overseas and I've added it to my daily blog browsing.
One of yesterday's entries broke my heart and I wanted to share it with you. It speaks of courage, forgiveness, and humanity. A friend of mine is back from Iraq and he's slowly coming out of himself with the help of his vet center and all of us who love him even though he's changed a lot. He said it was mindblowing to be kind to people and be shot at the next day- but that you couldn't help being kind. I didn't really understand what he meant until I read this.
Part of the blog is behind the cut along with a link to the rest of it. It's a long read, but worth the time.
She is handsome, rather than beautiful. Her black dress covers her from head to toe, with only her face showing under a black head scarf. Still, her open, expressive face is attractive in a motherly way, as she smiles and looks down at her curly-haired baby, the child's fist crammed firmly into his mouth. Sitting on the woven carpets in the bare room are her other children. A slender girl with her back against the white plastered wall, perhaps 14 years of age and wearing a red dress, smiles shyly up at me. The third child, a young boy, sits quietly beside his mother, his dark eyebrows and pale skin forming a striking contrast. Children's books and white notepads filled with children's drawings are scattered on the carpets that line the floor of the room.
We have come to raid their house.
Standing in the room with the mother and children, I feel slightly foolish as I post a young, serious soldier with a squad automatic weapon to guard them. He is to prevent them from getting up and moving around the house while my soldiers conduct their search. For both their safety and ours, I can take no chances.
Source: Name: AirborneJD
Posting date: 10/14/06
Returned from: Iraq
Read the rest of the entry here: http://gocomics.typepad.com/...
When the hawks talk about 'supporting our troops', I wonder if they're reading these stories. I want to know if they understand what our young people are facing. I want all of my friends to come home.