"i am just so happy to be free": war resister marc hall and notes on stop loss

Courage To Resist is circulating an audio clip of Iraq War veteran Marc Hall, a/k/a Hip Hop artist Marc Watercus. Hall was a victim of stop-loss - a/k/a involuntarily re-enlistment - a/k/a the back-door draft - and wrote a song protesting it. For this, Hall was jailed, then sent to Iraq for court martial.

Hall was eventually discharged, but it was a tough and scary fight. Because he wrote a protest song. Because he fulfilled the terms of his contract and wanted to get out of the Army.

Courage To Resist feels that public outcry over Hall's punishment and the outpouring of support - including funds raised for his legal defense - made a big difference in the case.

Most stop-lossed soldiers have no recourse. More than 185,000 troops have been affected by stop-loss since the Iraq War began. In 2006, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates promised to minimize stop-loss, but by April 2008 the use of stop-lossed troops had increased by 43%. Gates is now Secretary of Defense in the Obama Administration, and the stop-loss policy has not been changed.

An excerpt from Hall's statement:
When you are facing something like this, there is almost nothing you can do about it. But when you have a good support system unit that knows exactly what is going on, it helps out so much. I just want to say thank you. There were a lot of other Soldiers that felt the same way, especially about the stop-loss. . . . If it was not for you all, I don’t know what would have happened. . . . I'm so happy to be free!

You can listen to it here..

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