More slavery

MANIFESTO

USA Today reports this morning that

The Army has accelerated its policy of involuntary extensions of duty to bolster its troop levels, despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates' order last year to limit it, Pentagon records show.

Gates directed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service secretaries to minimize mandatory tour extensions, known as "stop loss," in January 2007. By May, the number of soldiers affected by the policy had dropped to a three-year low of 8,540.

Since then, the number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army rose 43% to 12,235 in March. The reliance on stop loss has increased as the military has sent more troops to Iraq and extended tours to 15 months to support an escalation in U.S. forces ordered by President Bush. The increase last month was driven by the need to send more National Guard soldiers to Iraq.

Soldiers affected by stop loss now serve, on average, an extra 6.6 months.

Well, Gates's plan has worked out well, hasn't it? The bottom line is clearly this: The Bushies don't want to have a draft because that'll create fatalities in Republican-inclined suburban areas, and that will never do. Rather, they've created this execrable system where virtually the only people in harm's way are those who see military service as the only option to escape the barrio or ghetto.

Thus, the Bushies kill (pardon the expression) two birds with one stone: They keep their appalling war going while they decrease social services to those who come home in bags.