C&L: Olbermann: Welcome Back

Crooks and Liars - Countdown: Welcome Home: "I defy you to watch this and not be moved. And as he does so often, Keith Olbermann zeros in on exactly what should be meant by the phrase “supporting the troops.”

To speak of supporting the troops and not understand that the only true way to enact that support is to make sure that kind of homecoming is what each of them and their families have earned is to reduce that support to a saying on a bumper sticker, to making it a meaningless brand name. Supporting the troops is supporting 1st Lt. Thomas Bourne, and supporting Amy Bourne and supporting Walker Bourne and supporting Preston Bourne. Supporting them is not making those two little boys have to cry again. It is not thumping a chest and waving a flag and threatening a dissenter. It is not what the Army Reserve is doing to Thomas Bourne and thousands more like him: sending him after his two weeks’ leave is up…back to Iraq."

When I got back from Brazil, going through the customs lines, a whole planeful of soldiers back from Iraq for two weeks was moving through the process. Realizing they were home for only two weeks, and still had to go through the hour-long security line to get out of the airport, was tough to watch.