This post was co-authored with Garett Reppenhagen, Servicemember Liaison for Veterans For America.

When men and women in our country join the military, we enter into a sacred contract with them that obliges us honor their willingness to serve and sacrifice - end of story.

One of the most egregious violations of this mutual trust is something called "stop loss" - a very disturbing practice by which our men and women in uniform are forced to continue to serve in the military, after they had expected that they could leave.

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Veterans for America (VFA) strongly applauds Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) for introducing H.R. 6205, the Stop-loss Compensation Act, which requires that U.S. servicemembers whose tours of duty are involuntarily extended, commonly known as "stop-loss," receive special pay for the duration of their extension.

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AP: A Marine reserve battalion that suffered heavy losses in Iraq in 2005 is sending out members for training before expected assignment in Iraq.

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Here are the top stories this week related to our soldiers here and abroad, taken from the Our Troops Newsladder.

USA Today found that the Pentagon knowingly sent 43,000 troops to Iraq and Afghanistan that were determined to be medically unfit for combat in the weeks prior to their deployment, another sign of the unprecedented stress on our military. (usatoday.com)

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This weekend I saw 3 movies: 21, The Bank Job, and Stop-Loss. 21 was cool, partially because it was inspired by a true story, The Bank Job was incredible, and Stop-Loss was...well...2 hours of Liberal propaganda.

When I watched the trailer I was so excited to see the movie I did a double feature (back to back) after The Bank Job. Well, I must congratulate the people who created that trailer because they did their job very well. The only decent scenes in the movie were in the trailer, and the rest of the 1 hour and 50 minutes were just depressing, repeating, scenes of Ryan Phillipe cursing and screaming. Actually, I change my mind. The only good part of the movie was the music video segments that were put in. That was creative. But other than that I walked out of the movie feeling depressed and confused. Clearly this was another attempt by Liberal Hollywood to try to advertise as much as they could before the elections. Good timing...however it almost defeats the purpose when it is that blatant. Perhaps if they were to have put this movie out months ago it would have been more meaningful. This is way too obvious to take seriously.

For tickets to Stop-Loss (and to see for yourself how this movie is not a good segway to sway voters and spread the word) please click here!

When I got home I googled to see if there was anyone who caught on or if I was just way too critical...and sure enough it turns out that there were a few blog posts on it on Comingsoon.net.

One blogger said:

Posted by: roddy on March 23, 2008 at 00:03:48

Don't get too worked up if people don't go see this movie. It's just propaganda, no offense to your political affiliation. When people feel a sense of duty, they give to the poor, join the army themselves, write to a congressman, pray to see what God would have them do, etc. But usually they don't go see a movie. I am coming from a family whose father has died in a fatal car accident, whose brother has been on probation for being falsely accused for child endangerment, whose sister has an addiction to crack and has stolen thousands of dollars from me. I have had a sense of duty to join the army myself but can't go due to being overweight but I am working on that. I have a lot to be miserable about so I read the Bible for guidance, pray to God for healing, give what I can and I go to see a movie to escape. I would much rather see Iron Man any day, than to go see another condescending Hollywood movie about war. And I have seen my fair share of anti-war movies. I appreciate that you care, but your passion is misplaced. Hollywood will never solve anything.

HBO has a new series coming out in July called Generation Kill It is predicted to be an aired 7 hour show based on the book (Generation Kill written by Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright) "chronicling his experience as an embedded reporter with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq" as described in Wikipedia.

This show looks great from the Trailer, but hopefully it is a little more fulfilling and has greater depth than does Stop-Loss.

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