Bombs exploding. Shrapnel slicing through flesh. Bullets whizzing past like tiny meteorites, a sound of thunder following a split second later. A strangled scream. Blood pooling in the dust.
All in the life of the American soldier.
These soldiers suffer through arduous basic training. They are trained to shoot machine guns and live in different environments. They go far away to some alien place on Earth and live there for a year. There, they  battle enemy insurgents and yearn  to be with their families.
In America, their families live day by day, hoping for a phone call from their loved ones overseas, waiting for them to come home.
I remember the pain I felt in my gut when my brother, Andrew, was deployed to Kuwait. My family surrounded me as I stubbornly fought the tears trying to slide down my face. The tears flowed anyway. They comforted each other with hugs and shared water works.
My family and I watched as Andrew boarded the bus. Dust rose from the road as the buses pulled away, led by a procession of Harleys roaring like lions. An American flag flew behind the lead motorcycle, waving its proud colors in the wind.
These buses would take my brother first to Fort McCoy, Wis., then to Kuwait, a tiny country hugging the border of Iraq.
Andrew entered Iraq. He went to Baghdad. He helped pull out the soldiers already in enemy territory.
The families of the soldiers who are coming home support the pullout of American troops from Iraq. Others don’t support the war at all.
Still, others despise soldiers in the military  because of what they do. I call these people “haters.”
I saw a YouTube video a girl made, saying all the reasons the military is horrible, bashing American soldiers. I watched the video on Andrew’s phone, because his basic training friend had posted it on Facebook. Andrew thought it was funny, but I was infuriated by what she said. Apparently soldiers shoot children in their faces with AK 47s. She was proved a fool when Andrew told me the Army hasn’t used AK 47s since World War II.
She also said the Army kills innocent people. Sure, maybe they do. It’s a war.  Things happen in wars. Civilians aren’t targeted, but accidents happen. Also, who would shoot a child in the face? Not anyone in the military. Certainly no one there. It doesn’t make sense to harm the people whom they are protecting from enemy insurgents. They don’t.
Another “hater”  had keyed the magnet on a family friend’s car. The magnet was for “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon,” an organization to support people who have family in the
military.
Why would someone do this?
It’s impossible to wrap my head around this. People hate the military so much they violate someone’s property? They have certain freedoms because of what our soldiers do for us. They should exercise their freedom of speech to bash the military that gave them their freedom, instead of damaging someone’s property. Just let them hate the military with their freedoms. A country without the military is a country without rights for citizens.
Soldiers fight for these rights. Military men and women risk their lives every day. They hear bombs exploding. Pieces of shrapnel may slice into someone’s flesh. When they are under fire, bullets whizzing past their heads, they don’t run. They turn toward the shooters. Some may get shot.
Many have gotten  shot. Injured military men and women are sent home, some without major appendages. Some are so disfigured they don’t even look human anymore. I wonder what that YouTube girl would say to the face of one of those military members. Or maybe the “hater” who keyed the magnet.
Andrew may not be in the center of the fighting, but he is still fighting for our country in other ways. Imagine being in a desert country far away from your family and you’ll see how hard it can be. He is doing this because he loves his country and wants to protect it.
And when Andrew comes home, I won’t think about any “haters”  out there. Instead, I’ll wrap my arms around him in a tight bear hug and the tears will fall freely down my face.