Quote Originally Posted by Alric View Post
So do you think it is safe to pull out of German and Japan yet? Or will both of those countries crumble into chaos if we leave? And do we need to have a base in Iraq for 60 years until things are fixed there?

There doesn't seem to be any sign of the US pulling out of Iraq any time soon though. I believe the plan was to permanently station 15,000 people there.
Of course it's safe to leave Germany and Japan, but why would we want to? We are allies, we can work together.

I've been saying for years that we should be in Iraq indefinitely, not just for our sake but for the sake of the entire Middle East.

Quote Originally Posted by Laughing Man View Post
I am making a point implicitly. If there are such things as unlawful orders, or orders that are given which are not suppose to be followed then being in the military is not just "following orders." It involves but is not limited to deciding what is and is not a lawful order which in turn requires that a soldier think beyond just "following orders." This in turn requires the soldier to be a free-willed agent who can choose to or choose not to follow an order.
Yes. I am aware of this. You still don't choose to go to Iraq or Afghanistan and you don't choose to patrol this town or that town. You follow orders that are legal. That was implied.

Quote Originally Posted by Laughing Man View Post
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/pdf/enlistment.pdf

Nevermind, I have the DD 4/1 contract. Please, show me where it says anything about stop-loss.
That is no contract. But don't waste your time looking for one, I already showed a link that said federal courts have ruled that military personnel contractual agree that their terms of service might be involuntarily extended. That means it's in there somewhere. It has to have a legal basis or it couldn't be enforced.

"The policy has been legally challenged several times. However, federal courts have consistently found that military service members contractually agree that their term of service may be involuntarily extended until the end of their obligated service."

Stop-loss policy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia