Stop Loss

What will Southrons make of the movie? If it is well-done, those who are tired of the South sharing much of the burden for the American imperial war machine will at least approve of the movie's message, if not the movie itself.

While the stop loss policy in itself my not be illegal , since the possibility of being kept on active duty, or being recalled, is listed under the terms of one's enlistment contract (and it does seem from the trailer that the movie gets this wrong, as if the Army is breaking its part of the contract somehow), still there is a moral point to be made--is stop loss moral or just? Is it fair to demand so much from our soldiers (and their families), some of whom have had their rotations home cut short (of the "promised" period of time) so they can be redeployed to Afghanistan and Iraq again? If our stay in Iraq is so important, shouldn't GWOT cheerleaders be encouraged to enlist, or even drafted so we can meet the manpower requirements? Or should the draft be reinstated? (Of course, that will probably not happen, because the National Government is aware of the popular backlash that would result.)

Are our soldiers like the Roman legionaries, being sent away far from home on long campaigns for the glory of the Empire? How did the legionaries cope with being away from home? Are our soldiers somehow weaker if they want to be home instead of being far away? Or should we say instead that at least they still have an idea of what it means to be a free citizen whose devotion should be to home, rather than being an instrument of the American Empire to further goals that have nothing to do with protecting the homeland?

Unfortunately, pretty boy Ryan Phillippe may undermine the message of the movie. Does he make a credible soldier? Or a Southron, for that matter?

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