- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eight
U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Kuwait filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging
the U.S. military's "stop loss" policy, which forces them to
serve beyond their enlistment contracts.
-
- Lawyers for the active duty soldiers sued Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other senior military officials and asked to
be immediately released from military service, saying they had served out
their contracts.
-
- The U.S. Army has implemented a "stop loss"
policy that prevents tens of thousands of soldiers designated to serve
in Iraq and Afghanistan from leaving the military even when their volunteer
service commitment is over.
-
- Spec. David Qualls said he enlisted with the Arkansas
National Guard on July 7, 2003, under a program that allows a veteran to
serve for one year before committing to full enlistment, but when he wanted
to quit a year later, he was told he could not return home from Iraq to
his wife and daughter in Arkansas.
-
- "What it boils down to in my opinion is a question
of fairness," Qualls, 35, told a news conference to announce the suit
filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington. "I feel it's time
to let me go back to my wife."
-
- A recent pay stub for Qualls, who is on home leave from
Iraq, indicated his last day of service would now be Dec. 24, 2031.
-
- Qualls, who said he supported the war in Iraq, took an
80 percent wage cut to serve his country and said he was falling behind
on his car and house mortgage payments.
-
- "I spent the last nine months in that combat zone
(in Iraq). I don't think I am being unpatriotic. I believe I have fulfilled
my duties," he said of his wish to quit.
-
- Lawyers representing Qualls and the others said the military's
decision to force people to stay longer than they had signed up for amounted
to a back-door draft, a claim the military has strongly rejected.
-
- ANONYMOUS
-
- Qualls is the lead plaintiff and the only one named in
the suit. The others have asked to remain anonymous, described as John
Doe 1 through John Doe 7, because they fear a backlash from the Army.
-
- "I wanted people to understand we are not John Does
out there. We are real people," said Qualls of his decision to be
named.
-
- Six of the eight are stationed in Iraq and two soldiers
in Kuwait are on their way to Iraq. Their hometowns are in New Jersey,
New York, Arizona, Arkansas and elsewhere and they joined the lawsuit by
contacting lawyers either via the Internet or with the help of relatives
back home.
-
- Qualls is due to leave for Iraq on Friday and lawyer
Staughton Lynd said he hoped to win a temporary restraining order to allow
his client to stay in America while his case was heard.
-
- "When we ask a young person to risk his or her life
in harms way, we owe it to that young person to fully explain the circumstances
they may confront so far as the length of service," said Lynd. "That
was not done here."
-
- Lawyer Jules Lobel, vice president of the Center for
Constitutional Rights, said he would try to prove the soldiers were fraudulently
induced to join the military in what he said was a classic "bait and
switch" operation.
-
- The Pentagon, which did not return phone calls about
the suit, has said without a "stop loss" policy in place, the
already stretched Army would be forced to continuously replace thousands
of soldiers in deployed units as their service commitments expired.
-
- Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
-
- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u=/nm/20041
206/ts_nm/iraq_military_lawsuit_dc
|
