Outing the back-door draft

The war in Iraq (and recently announced plans to commit another 10k troops) have strained the personnel resources of the Armed Forces to their limits. In bending over backward to avoid a draft, the leadership strategy has been to call up retired soldiers, but even more to enlongate the service requirements of those already in action, via a policy called "stop-loss" orders that keep individual soldiers in the field as long as their unit remains active.

Yeah, morale is great over there. Soldiers are working the wires from their bunkers trying to call the government to task for this game, and finally eight are bringing suit against the Army to challenge the stop-loss policy.

These soldiers' public objections are only the latest signs of rising tension within the ranks. In October, members of an Army Reserve unit refused a mission, saying it was too dangerous. And in recent months, some members of the Individual Ready Reserve, many of whom say they thought they had finished their military careers, have objected to being called back to war and requested exemptions.

Most of the plaintiffs refused to have their names listed, for fear of retribution such as more dangerous assignments in the field. Eesh!

(via DavidNYC at dailyKos)

Update: Via a coworker (and it's also at Kos), the troops are complaining directly to Rumsfeld too about long tours and insufficient armaments, although his response was pretty much, "Do the best you can"...