by James Glaser
January 11, 2005

American troops have been asked by Washington to give more than any troops in the past 50 years. Some troops are on their third combat tour of George Bush's War on terrorism. Our troops suffer, but they are suffering alone. The American public has not been asked to do anything. Thousands of Americans have been killed and wounded, but still President Bush will not declare a National Emergency.

Everyday we can pick up a paper or listen to a news cast and hear that more Americans and Iraqis have lost their lives in this war, but you would never know it in Middle America.

In Washington the Iraq war really isn't that big of a deal. Sure it would be nice if we had more troops to send, but as Donald Rumsfeld says, "You fight a War with the Army you have." No draft is in the works, because that would be political suicide. No request of sacrifice from the American public, because that might cost votes.

So what to we do? We keep sending the same troops back to the combat zone so they can play Russian roulette in their unarmored vehicles. Our all volunteer military has now become an army filled with people serving because of something outlawed over a hundred tears ago and that is called Involuntary Servitude or Stop-loss

According to David Wiggins, a distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, "Prior to September 2001, the armed forces last used stop loss in 1990, during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, under then President George H. Bush. President George W. Bush authorized a new Stop Loss policy on September 14, 2001, in Executive Order 13233. Since then, the Army has announced 11 stop-loss orders.

On 4 November 2002, a new stop loss policy affected over 60,000 soldiers. With this policy, a typical Ready Reserve soldier could be affected up to 30 months: 3 months during alert, 12­24 months while actually mobilized, and 3 months for demobilization. Ready Reserve soldiers who also possessed a certain skill or specialty could be affected until the later of 90 days after demobilization or the completion of an additional 12 months active duty."

Phillip Carter and Owen West write in Slate, "California, home to Camp Pendleton and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, have suffered tremendous loss during this war—nearly one-quarter of U.S. combat dead in 2004 were stationed at Camp Pendleton. Military leaders should be mindful of this fact: To send infantrymen on their third rotations to Iraq this spring is akin to assigning a trooper three tours in Vietnam."

As long as Congress and the Bush administration can get away with it, we will continue to send young Americans back for repeated tours of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the American public lives like there is no war. Nothing for us to worry about and nothing for us to sacrifice.

The Pentagon will continue the charade of calling our military "All Volunteer" while at the same time they are using an Executive Stop Loss Order to keep Soldiers and Marines from ending their voluntary enlistment and forcing them under the threat of Court Martial to return to the battle front repeatedly.