Letter to newspapers

The past week has seen another round of political wrangling in the halls of the national capitol, but one of the biggest and most relevant facts continues to slip under the radar as unnoticed: the fact that the troops whom we claim to support are being hit with an unprecedented number of so-called "stop-losses" and "involuntary extensions". These are the phrases that the military uses to frame the gory portrait of re-conscription that is destroying our Army and Marine Corps.
When I got a call back from my friends in the 4th Infantry Division where I served for more than 3 years as an intelligence analyst, I was amazed when they told me that more than half of them will be returning to Iraq having been involuntarily extended. I did some research only to find that this statistic holds true across the board, which is to say, every other soldier returning to Iraq for "OIF 07-09" will be doing so on expired contracts, most for their second or third consecutive tours (which have now been extended to a 15-month minimum).

When I called Pentagon Public Affairs I was referred to old information from April of this year, citing the fact that 8,000 soldiers were then stop-lossed. While this is unbearably inaccurate, as it (intentionally?) fails to reflect the number of "involuntarily extended" soldiers, it is still appaling. These are men and women who have already done their time and most have served more than a year of their life in a combat zone! How we can stop-loss or involuntarily extend troops with one hand while claiming to generously support them with the other is beyond my reckoning. Whether the number is 8,000 or 80,000-- the most accurate estimate I have come across-- there is no excuse for this egregious fraud. We must end this illegal and immoral practice which will otherwise destroy our military.


Thank You,

Evan M. Knappenberger

Specialist, Military Intelligence, Taji Iraq, 2005-2006