Veterans For America (VFA) strongly applauds Texas Rep. Jackson-Lee for co-sponsoring H.R. 6205, the Stop-loss Compensation Act, authored by Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio. The bill requires that U.S. servicemembers whose tours of duty are involuntarily extended, commonly known as "stop-loss," receive special pay for the duration of their extension.
More than 70,000 Soldiers have been stop-lossed since 2002. During the recent Iraq troop "surge," the number of troops stop-lossed reached 12,235. Such orders harm the morale of our fighting men and women and are nothing more than a short-term crutch for maintaining force levels. As Admiral Michael G. Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said "we need to move away from [stop-loss] as rapidly as we can."
Of all the abuses borne by our servicemembers since the beginning of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, excessive reliance on stop-loss is one of the most egregious. Involuntary service negates the promise of our all-volunteer military. By forcing tens of thousands of troops to stay in the military, we have broken the contract that our servicemembers willingly entered into with their country.
VFA applauds Reps. Jackson-Lee and Sutton's efforts to mitigate the burdens placed on our troops and their families by stop-loss orders. We encourage their colleagues in Congress to support this legislation.
(We need to elect leaders, from a new President to a new Senator that will bring this to a responsible close. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
This morning, President Bush will make an announcement about the situation in Iraq. For every American who supports the troops, I hope that you will listen carefully when he announces that troop deployments are being reduced from the current back-breaking 15 months to 12 months at the end of the summer.
In short, this is a hollow political announcement.
This announcement will do nothing to help the troops currently deployed for 15 months right now, some of whom will not return to the United States until summer 2009. Almost half of the active-duty Army's frontline units are currently deployed for 15 months -- HALF -- and of those units, three are on their fourth tour and almost all have been deployed at least twice. We need to reduce everyone's current tours to 12 months, every unit, right now.
From now to the end of this president's term in office, the overwhelming majority of frontline troops scheduled to deploy are Army National Guard, and their scheduled tours are already 12 months, so again, the president's announcement does nothing to help them even though many of these troops are scheduled for their second deployment, leaving jobs and families behind again, for a full year.
15-month tours are just too long. DoD itself has found that 15-month deployments are dispiriting. Every day at Veterans for America, we hear from Soldiers and their families reeling from the effects of 15-month deployments. And we listen as no less an expert than the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen says "the well is deep, but it is not infinite." Our reports show that the consequences of churning our troops will be significant and even greater in the future.
Our troops need their commander in chief to fight for them. They need real help, and they need it now.
(I'd like to hear from any BOR readers who have been in rotation or have family members affected by this. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Next week, General David Petraeus will travel to Capitol Hill and make his report to Congress on the war in Iraq. If, as expected, he announces a pause in the withdrawal in troops from Iraq, our Congress must say "no" for the sake of our military and of our servicemembers.
We can not pause the withdrawal of our troops because we are seeing, everyday, the absolute devastation our wars, with frequent, long, often extended deployments, are having on our men and women in uniform.
How can we constantly churn our troops like this? How can we consciously compound the wounds of war? We are sending men and women back for fourth and fifth tours of duty when the Department of Defense, by its own estimation, says that with each additional tour, troops are 60% more likely to develop severe post-combat mental health issues.
