Military SNAFU

Since the time that spears, swords and catapults were the weapon of choice, fighting men have looked upon their departure from military service with eager anticipation. Some like to hear the cannonball roaring and that’s fine. But for those wanting to sever their relationship with the military, being a short timer and having a precise date of discharge is of the utmost importance to them as they make plans to get on with their lives. Our beloved Pentagon has decided that in the words of Dr. Phil, "It ain’t about you".

The Pentagon has implemented a stop-loss order pursuant to emergency wartime orders. The rationale for employing the order is to provide for cohesive units with the ability to fight as a team. And so on the whim of the powers that be, safely situated in that strange looking five sided building in D.C., any military member scheduled for deployment to the combat zone less than 90 days prior to discharge will be held over to deploy and complete said deployment. Yikes, this smacks of indentured servitude.

An Oregon National Guardsman has brought a lawsuit against the Pentagon for extending his enlistment under the stop-loss program. Having completed his original eight year enlistment in 2004, he was reactivated and became the lucky recipient of an extension under which he will continue to receive full benefits and entitlements until Christmas 2031. Have a holly jolly Christmas, grunt. If a criminal received a five year sentence, more than likely he/she wouldn’t do the nickel. And if for some quirk of fate he/she did stay one single day over, there would be a hurried scamper of civil libertarians to the courthouse to right the atrocious wrong.

Wonder why the military recruiters are having trouble meeting their quotas? How do you square the idea of a contract with a prospective recruit when the government can simply declare it null and void? In a war which we should have never entered into? The Pentagon claims that stop-loss is not intended to bolster the number of over all personnel in the military, but simply addresses the issue of the necessity of cohesive combat units. It doesn’t even pass the laugh test.