http://oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1092830549139940.xmlA National Guardsman raised in Oregon is challenging the Pentagon's plan to extend his combat tour by as much as two years, the first legal response to a program that has affected as many as 45,000 soldiers since late 2001.
Democratic congressional leaders have questioned the policy, as has Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Vietnam veteran. Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry has labeled such orders a "back-door draft."
The soldier's lawsuit contests an increasingly controversial tool used by the Army to bolster combat forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. What the military terms "stop loss" orders prevent soldiers from leaving the Army either at the end of their tour or in retirement if their unit is mobilized for Iraq or Afghanistan.
In Oregon and across the country, soldiers who thought they were about to finish their military careers find their tours overseas extended or they are dispatched with units mobilized from the United States.
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