Letters from Baghdad

[tw]

Originally Posted by regular.joe

In a time of war, my enlistment
may be extended without my consent for the duration of the war and
for six months after its end (10 U.S.C. 506, 12103(c)).

Considering that "Mission Accomplished will easily be a decade long war, that is quite a contract. I did not realize stop loss applied that long.

Also interesting is the phrase "in time of war or of national emergency declared by the Congress". 'War' (legally) does not exist in Iraq. Therefore it becomes a "national emergency declared by the Congress". I don't recall that specific condition having being declared. But then such details get lost in the reporting.

So "Mission Accomplished" is a national emergency. Is Afghanistan (the justified war) a "war"? And for consistency, was Bosnia a 'war' or a 'national emergency'? A deployment authorized by the UN would not trigger stop loss?