About Face!

The Guardian reports that ten thousand US soldiers got a little more than they bargained for:

WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 10,000 American soldiers who were to return this month to home bases in Louisiana and Germany will have their tour in Iraq extended at least three months to help combat the surge in anti-occupation violence, defense officials said Wednesday.

The decision, which has not been announced publicly, breaks the Army's promise to soldiers and their families that assignments in Iraq would be limited to 12 months. The affected soldiers already have been in Iraq for a year.

Welcome-home ceremonies at Fort Polk, La., scheduled for this month, have been canceled. In Baumholder, Germany, some soldiers' families have stopped marking the days off the calendar.

I wonder how many of these folks also have been kept in the ranks due to "stop-loss" orders, which are little more than a draft in disguise.