From the Los Angeles Times:
WASHINGTON -- The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army involuntarily under the military's controversial "stop-loss" program has risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year, officials said Thursday.
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The Army has resorted to involuntary extensions of soldiers' enlistment terms to prevent them from leaving immediately before a combat tour or in the middle of a deployment.
Army officials have argued that the policy is necessary to ensure that they are not forced to send inadequately trained soldiers and unprepared units into war.
However, many soldiers subjected to the stop-loss policy consider it a backdoor draft. Critics argue that once soldiers have completed the enlistment period they agreed to, they should be allowed to return home. The involuntary retention program is so unpopular that it helped inspire a recent movie called "Stop-Loss."
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Between 2002 and 2007, 58,300 soldiers were given stop-loss orders, forcing them to remain in the service past the end of their enlistment periods.
A mere trifle of a number, surely.
I was going to write a leisurely post about the latest Jane Austen movie, but my blog and newspaper reading led me astray.
And did you hear the number who have been sent back in to battle who were not thought to be healthy for fighting? I don't remember the exact number, It seemed high to me. One is too many.
ReplyDeleteLindy, I don't even know if there are accurate counts of those who are not mentally or physically fit who are, nevertheless, sent back to Iraq. Many are on anti-depressants. Others are physically not able to put on the body armor, because of previous injuries. It's sickening.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a crime. As is everything else about this war. I can't think of anything else to say.
ReplyDeleteRuth, crime is surely the word.
ReplyDelete