Stop Loss

To whom it may concern,

Ordering our soldiers to go to war is said to be one of the toughest decisions a President has to make. It must be even tougher to order them back against their will. The Stop-Loss policy is quite possibly one of the most deceptive conditions of the US Army contract. The Stop-Loss clause is exactly why parents tell their children to never sign anything until you read it first, and one’s peers urge them to read the fine print. The end of this most recent Stop-Loss is a clear indication of the change in policy brought to the armed forces by President Obama. Decelerating one of the longest wars in American history proves to have many benefits, including returning home those troops who fully and honorably served their country. In the future, the best defense against prolonged deployments is to avoid unnecessary deployments, such as the invasion of Iraq. We must remember that we went to war to find those who perpetrated 9-11, and those people were not in Iraq, but remain to this day in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now we must return to Afghanistan in full force to finish what was and still is the primary front in the war against terrorism. How will this administration ensure that this will be the true end of Stop-Loss?

GUNNAR HAND, AICP