What is Stop Loss?
“Stop Loss” is a military policy that prevents Troops from leaving the Armed Forces after their contracts have expired. Stop Loss policies allow commanders to force servicemen and women that are normally scheduled to retire or leave the military to remain in the military if their unit is scheduled to serve an upcoming tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. (More info: USA Today)Â

Stop Loss measures were first introduced in legislation passed during the first Gulf War and have been reinstated in the wake of September 11th. These measures have been implemented 11 times in the past three years. The policy’s scope was greatly increased in June 2004 and will affect approximately 7,000 active duty soldiers and 3,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists.

Why is Stop Loss a problem?
Stop Loss measures have been called a “stealth draft” and a “backdoor draft.” These measures are contrary to the concept of the volunteer army; servicemen and women affected by Stop Loss are not choosing to serve -- they are instead being required to. The Department of Defense and the Military are breaking the contracts they entered into with Servicemen and women who have now honorably completed their ends of the bargain. Troops who were expecting to get out cannot. They cannot retire, go back college or continue with their lives. (more info: military.com, PBS)

How does it affect troop morale?
Stop Loss is devastating to troop morale. Many Soldiers affected by Stop Loss have already served one or even two tours of combat duty, only to be extended when they were expecting to be finished with their service. Besides damaging troop morale, Stop Loss could possibly lead to a drop in recruitment and reenlistment rates, thus weakening our Armed Forces.

Why were Stop Loss measures enacted?
Our armed forces are currently stretched thin and Troop strength is generally inadequate.  Stop Loss is a politically expedient action; the Pentagon is applying a band-aid to a gaping wound. These measures require more sacrifices from American troops. Nonetheless, Stop Loss measures do not affect the civilian population. Requiring the civilian population to sacrifice, for instance by increasing taxes to fund a larger active force or actively considering the reinstatement of the draft, would be politically harmful. (more info: Christian Science Monitor)

Why aren’t the servicemen and women affected by this policy speaking out?
Soldiers on active duty are not permitted to speak publicly about military policy. Thus, the voices of the soldiers who are directly affected by Stop Loss are stifled. Click here for one soldier's challenge of the Stop Loss policy.

What needs to change?
There must be an eventual end to Stop Loss. Our troops are over-extended and it is unfair to punish them because war planners in Washington didn’t adequately prepare. We must increase troop strength in Iraq by increasing funding for the Armed Forces and focusing on recruiting; the Stop Loss measures speak to systematic problems in the Armed Forces. In the meantime, we must support the Troops who are currently being affected by Stop Loss.

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