Stop-Loss

INCIDENT:
My friend's son just got back from his third tour in Iraq. Following two tours in Iraq his initial end of term of service date drew near and he was suppose to get out of the military; however, he was stop-lossed. If you are unfamiliar with the stop-loss policy in the United States military, it is the involuntary extension of a service member's active duty service (Thanks Wikipedia!). It has also been referred to as the back door draft. Thousands of soldiers have been stop-lossed in this current war. Depending on the timing of the stop-loss, the soldier could be forced to serve another tour of duty. My friend's son went on to serve another 18 month tour in Iraq. His stories of Iraq are unbelievable and surreal. And every moment speaking to him you feel proud of all of our military personnel serving our country and at the same time outraged at how they have been treated.

Recently a movie directed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) and starring Ryan Phillippe (Igby Goes Down), Channing Tatum (Step Up), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun) has tackled this issue. Stop-loss is about the lives of a soldier and his platoon buddies as they return from their tour of duty in Iraq. Life was not as they expected it to be upon their return.



MORAL:
It is important to see this film and other films about the war in Iraq so that we can gain some perspective about the reality of war. We seem so isolated in the United States from everything that is going on in the Middle East and I wonder if an accurate image of the day-to-day in Iraq is what our country needs as we head to the voting booth in November.

If we will not get the truth from this administration, the very least we can do is to search for the truth ourselves. We owe it to our country and to our service members in the military.