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=Army trying to end Stop Loss by 2011= This summer, the army will be trying to end the use of the unpopular practice of holding troops beyond their enlistment dates and hopes to almost completely eliminate it in two years, also called Stop Loss. It has been said that as of January, the roughly 13,000 soldiers on stop-loss included 7,300 active-duty Army, about 4,450 in the Guard and 1,450 reservists are the ones affected by stop loss. Though the practice has been virtually ended in all other service branches, the Army said it still needed to use it because of the severe strain it has been under fighting the two ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stop Loss has been called a back door draft because it keeps troops in the military beyond their retirement or re-enlistment dates. However, army officials say stop loss is nescessary because of the low amount of recruits and the need to keep soldiers with certain skills in the army. To help counter-act the use of stop lossing, the army has agreed to pay $500 a month for a soldier kept beyond their deployment. Defense Secretary Gates said that he will not be able to totally end the stop loss. However he does agree that stop lossing soldiers is not fair. Though officials have the legal power to involuntarily extend soldier's service, "I believe that when somebody's end date of service comes, to hold them against their will, if you will, is just not the right thing to do," he said. "Our goal is to cut the number of those stop-lost by 50 percent by June 2010 and to eliminate the regular use of stop-loss across the entire Army by March 2011," Gates said. "We will retain the authority to use stop-loss under extraordinary circumstances."

media type="youtube" key="qIBzo2V5jvQ" height="364" width="445" Ryan Conklin from the Real World was Stop-lossed this week. The video is quiet so make sure to turn up your volume.