Rank and file are none too happy about stop loss, especially guys in Afghanistan. (Assume that creature comforts are markedly less there than the walled and wired compounds with KBR-supplied PXes of Iraq. A friend who recently returned (Oct) said that even in Kabul it's unpleasant.)
LA Times story* (by Esther Schrader) about stop loss interviews Andrew Exum: <http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-troops3jun03,1,4691395.story?coll=la-home-headlines>
The use of the stop-loss program is particularly controversial within the military, where many soldiers have complained it amounts to a reinstitution of the draft.
"I've led troops for the past two years on the small unit level, and these are not guys who are unpatriotic in any way. They volunteered and in many cases have served multiple tours," said Andrew Exum, 25, a former Army captain who served in a special operations unit in Iraq and Afghanistan and has written a book based on his experiences.
"We're the ones who serve our country proudly and we're happy to do so. But we'd like to be able to plan on doing something else," Exum said. "There are a lot of guys who would just like to go to college, to start a family, and now their future plans are thrown into turmoil. These are the guys who are not going to say no to old Uncle Sam."
And Warren Olney of radio station KCRW interviewed Schrader, Exum and a Hoover Inst. military "expert" about the same subject of stop loss. Exum, at the ripe old age of 25 may or may not have sufficient power of reflection and forecasting, but the HI fellow at 51 does. Schrader has typical nearsightedness of most daily reporters.
<http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?tmplt_type=program&show_code=ww>
Pentagon has called up brigades from Korea (active duty) and battalions from Louisiana (opfor training, hasn't been to war since WW2), and is making plans to start calling up IR (Inactive Reserve). With all due respect to these guys, calling the IR is scraping the bottom of the barrel with respect to force levels. (Though not necessarily quality. IR will all be vets who separated within the past few years.)
From Army Public Affairs: <http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=5958> Screening of Obligated Individual Ready Reserve Soldiers for Possible Assignment to Army Reserve Units May 13, 2004
The Army's Human Resources Command - St. Louis (HRC-STL), is identifying Individual Ready Reserve Soldiers with a statutory Military Service Obligation (MSO) remaining for possible assignment to an Army Reserve unit. These Soldiers may be assigned to position vacancy requirements within designated Reserve units based upon the needs of the Army.
At this time, there have been no involuntary assignments of IRR Soldiers to any Army Reserve units. The HRC-STL is identifying IRR Soldiers for possible assignment. HRC-STL is responsible for the management of all Army IRR soldiers and has standard business processes in place.
[...]
Once the Pentagon has called up all possible rear area units and inactive reserves, they will have nowhere else to get fresh people except the draft. But... No draft before first week of November. Political tactics (Rove) supersede policy (Powell) and military strategy (Rumsfeld).
*stories go behind payfer-wall after 7 days