Last weekend I saw the movie Stop-Loss and I have to admit that for an MTV movie, it was not that bad. The movie, created by the director of Boys Don't Cry (really good movie), followed the experiences of 3 soldiers who had served in Iraq but were now back on home leave. Of these 3 soldiers, 2 were suppose to be "getting out." Ryan Phillipe's character, Sgt. King, gets stop-loss but refuses to comply with the order. He then proceeds to go on the run. His best friend, Sgt. Shriver, voluntarily reenlists despite not having been stop-lossed.
I thought the movie was interesting because it depicted a situation were Sgt. King is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. According to the movie, the only options Sgt. King had available to him were either comply with the stop-loss or be a fugitive from his own government forever.
Now I know that stop-loss and military recruitment issues are not really things we have touched upon in class, however, I thought that this movie was not a bad way to explore the lives of our weapons bearers. We spend a lot of time talking about training our troops to respect IHL and to not create an atmosphere of tolerance. What I wonder is, if we continue to abuse our troops and violate their civil rights, then what expectations do we have that they will respect other's rights? I think that if we continue to send troops against their will, we will be depleting morale and creating an atmosphere of resentment. I am not saying that all stop-lossed troops will commit violations of IHL, I am just saying that creating disgruntled and embittered troops is probably not going to help the cause.
Stop-Loss the Movie
Washington Times Article
US Code Section authorizing stop-loss
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You make an interesting point. How can soldiers be expected to respect human rights during conflict if the rights of the individual soldier are not respected.
However, this issue could potentially tie into the overreaching issue of whether a state complies with ratified IHL. I wonder if one could measure a state's willingness to respect the rights of its soldiers with the reported violations against that state on the battlefield. This ties into the US loop-holing IHL on the issue of torture and the treatment of its own soldiers.
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