The Homecoming

By Libby

Jim Henley snags the catch of the day and sums it up perfectly in one sentence.

Make no mistake, if the Congress “votes against money for the troops” and the angry antiwar “base” forces a precipitous withdrawal, you’ll see this nightmare scenario replicated on bases all over America, even in Western Europe and East Asia - a hundred-fifty thousand little “defeats.”

He's talking about Army of Dude.

It has been a week since our triumphant return to the states, to America, the first world. And as it wasn’t quite like I imagined in June, it was every bit as wonderful and surreal as I thought it would be. Every moment leading up to the march to the gym was met with cheers and hysterical laughter. Getting off the plane, turning in our guns, getting on a bus…at every step we got closer to seeing loved ones. You could feel it in your face and hear it in the voice of anyone you talked to.

...One of the first things I said to my dad after a big hug was, man, that was a long twelve months.

If you can read the Dude's whole post without getting a little choked up, well, you've got a sterner heart than me. If only this was the happy ending of his story. Unfortunately, with no signs of a changed course in the occupation, I'm afraid we're going to have to endure more nightmare inspiring chapters before we get to the end of the book.