Apr 07 2008
Stop-Loss
The wife and I saw the film Stop-Loss this past weekend. I had never heard of the term stop-loss before I saw the movie, it is basically the ability of the US Army to involuntarily extend a soldier’s enlistment contract past the initial end of service date in the time of war. That is where the rub is, we haven’t declared war on Iraq, we have a nebulous war on terror (it might as well be a war on cockroaches or martians). Overall it was a decent movie, it won’t win any awards, but it definitely gets the message across that our soldiers are getting fucked in the ass on this one. When I say fucked in the ass, that isn’t just with the stop-loss, it goes for the whole nasty mess the assholes in charge of our country have gotten them into. There is a decent comment thread about stop-loss on the movies blog site here, comments are mostly from military men and women. I will leave you with a poignant comment from a soldier that is currently being stop-lossed:
I am grateful a film is out about the Stop-Loss issue. Many of us have been “Stop-Lossed†and sent back to Iraq after our contracts with the Army have been fulfilled. Some of us never came home. After having served my country for 11 years, it is shameful that we, as soldiers, are subject to imprisonment if we fail to uphold our end of our contracts with the US Government, yet it is perfectly legal for the US Government to not uphold its end of the bargain. We all accept and do what is required of us while serving our country. But when our “time is up†and “duty fulfilled†they force us back and demand more. Personally, I believe that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Rumsfield, should be held personally accountable and legally charged for the death of every soldier that was deployed under Stop-Loss. We did our duty, now let us go.
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I really does suck, but when you step forward and take your oath, your ass is theirs, and you know it. You are totally under the control of the military. It’s a very funny feeling, sometimes nauseating literally. The one right you maintain is the right to bitch about it.
I saw the movie this weekend.
I thought it was all over the place.
It’s a war movie!
Wait..wait…
It’s a road trip movie!
No..wait…
It’s a love story!!
Hold on…
It’s a buddy flick…back to a love story…back to a war movie!!
Sonofabitch. Pick a f*cking theme and go with it.
On the bright side, I think Ryan Philippe got my wife all going…so I just had to go home and talk in a creepy Southern drawl and I was golden.
HM: i suppose so… i may be a dreamer, but i still think (or have hope) that one day our government will actually act on behalf of the people…
mooooooooooooooooooooooog35: yeah, it was choppy as hell… and i was totally waiting for Ryan to nail the chick he was with, or at least for her to get naked… oh well, i can still look her up on the net
Ryan Phillippe’s best film was Way of the Gun.
Scary that those poor people have to go through that.
crag: Way of the Gun was a cool flick… but HELLLLLOOO… this was his best movie because of this scene (and the fact that he wasn’t in it)… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaMvagz7lSE
mimz: just another reason to be pissed at the corrupt bastards in DC…
I understand that some soldiers are frustrated…. but the movie tries to promote the idea that soldiers are against the war, which isn’t true.
Bush got over 75% of the vote from active service men and women, when he was re-elected in 2004.
I don’t know what percentage he got in 2000, but it was probably even higher.
Adam: If I was a betting man… wait, I am a betting man, i would wager that that # (i.e., 75%) is a hell of a lot lower now than 3-4 years ago.