Posted on Fri, Jul. 25, 2008
Since the U.S. troops have been working overtime, the government should pay them overtime.
Legislation introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) would compensate soldiers $1,500 per month for extended duty. It would be a well-deserved reward for enduring the Pentagon's unfair "stop-loss" policy.
In the past four years, the Defense Department has extended involuntarily enlistment periods for about 60,000 service members. At present, as the war in Iraq entered its sixth year this summer, more than 12,000 soldiers - including 4,000 National Guard members - were under stop-loss orders.
Without a draft, the Pentagon has resorted to this policy to keep what its brass believes are adequate troop levels in Iraq and elsewhere. The result is that soldiers who signed up for a finite period of volunteer service end up having their tours extended involuntarily by an average of 6.6 months.
It frequently affects leaders at the small-unit level - sergeants through sergeants first class. Soldiers who ordinarily would leave when their commitments expire must stay in the service, beginning 90 days before their scheduled return, through the end of their deployment and beyond.
Extending service involuntarily creates further hardships at home, as well as additional stress for the soldier. It amounts to a back-door draft, when instituting a real draft would be too unpopular politically. And it undermines the whole notion of a volunteer Army.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates pledged last year to limit the use of stop-loss, but the Pentagon has increased these orders this year. The Army says it's necessary to preserve the integrity of units headed to war. But it's a short-term fix to cover the Army's many problems, from a war that has dragged on too long to insufficient recruitment.
Soldiers have challenged the stop-loss policy in federal court, but lost the case. That doesn't mean the government shouldn't recognize the extra burden it is forcing on these service members and their families.
Lautenberg's bill - there is similar legislation pending in the House - would provide a welcome morale boost to those families who have sacrificed the most. It's not a full answer for soldiers, who return home to find ingratitude, for example, in the form of inadequate mental-health services. But it's an important gesture to families who can use the extra compensation.
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