KEY POINTS:
Pausing to check his mailbox before heading out for a walk on a sunny San Francisco morning, Colby Buzzell's worst fears came true.
Since completing his tour of duty as a United States combat troop with the Stryker Brigade in Mosul, the Iraqi city where Saddam Hussein's sons were killed in mid-2003, Buzzell had spent every day of the past three years dreading the arrival of orders from the Army to return to the war.
Despite his constant anxiety about being called back to active duty, the bloody conflict taking place in Iraq had seemed light years away.
Buzzell, 32, a freelance journalist who became famous as one of the first soldier bloggers during the initial phases of the war in Iraq, had recently taken advantage of the Army's GI Bill - a programme that assists American service men and women to study at the college (university) or graduate (post-graduate) level.
He had signed up for photography classes at the local San Francisco City College and was hoping to begin in the next few weeks.
The Army's letter changed all of that.
Speaking from his home just two days before leaving to report to a nearby military base, Buzzell vividly remembers the moment he was recalled for duty.
"I opened the envelope up and all it pretty much said was that I had three weeks to show up [for active duty]," Buzzell said.
"The letter specifically said that this was for Operation Iraqi Freedom - I knew what that meant ... At first, I felt depressed - that was my initial reaction to [the letter]. Then I got upset and angry."
Buzzell's orders came under the US Army's use of what is widely known as the stop-loss policy. First implemented after the Vietnam War and consistently employed since the early 1990s and the first Gulf War, stop-loss is the "involuntary extension" of service of any member of the military beyond the original end of term of service (ETS) date.
With the stop-loss policy, the US President is essentially given exclusive power to decide the length of service of every single individual within the military.
During times of war, any member of the US armed services can be called upon to return to active duty until six months after the end of the conflict.
Unlike with the Vietnam War, where draftees often served a single year-long tour before returning directly home, today's soldiers will be on-call until after the as-yet-unknown end of America's current wars abroad - where 1.6 million service members have been deployed since the 9/11 attacks.
The result is that US soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today will spend more time at war than the average GI who served in Vietnam.
Former White House hopeful and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, drew attention to the issue in 2004 by calling the stop-loss policy "a backdoor draft."
Unlike the traditional military draft system, which tried to draw from a wider cross-section of American society, stop-loss ultimately makes draftees out of men and women who have already served their country in the armed forces - often numerous times.Though the military's use of this policy has been legally challenged several times, no federal court has been able to overturn stop-loss orders to return to active duty.
The reason behind this is that the possibility of stop-loss is detailed in the enlistment contract signed by every individual entering the US armed services.
However, like many others who have voiced their opposition to the stop-loss policy, Buzzell argues that despite the reference to "involuntary extension" of active duty in the Armed Services Contract, before the 2003 invasion of Iraq military recruiters made the use of stop-loss appear as an extremely unlikely future option.
In an article written for the San Francisco Chronicle soon after receiving his orders, Buzzell wrote that he too believes stop-loss is a "backdoor draft" and that the US Army consciously misled recruits between 9/11 and the beginning of the Iraq war.
"I remember asking my recruiter about the fine print on the contract about being called back up to active duty once my enlistment was completed," Buzzell wrote. "He assured me not to worry, that every contract said that and it would only happen if `World War III' broke out."
Although last month had the lowest monthly death toll (19) for US personnel since the beginning of the war more than five years ago, the total American deaths in Iraq hit 4085, a statistic Buzzell says weighs heavily on the mind of the Army and its recruiters.
"The war is a disaster and no one in their right mind is enlisting, so the military is throwing guys back to Iraq who have already served," Buzzell said.
"I think it's tragic and absurd. These are guys who have already done their time and it's just another slap in the face to veterans - people who should be allowed to move on with the rest of their lives."
Potential evidence of the short-term cost of the stop-loss policy can be found in new reports that show disturbing signs about the psychological and physical well-being of a number of today's US soldiers. According to a recent investigation by the New York Times, there are 121 cases where soldiers who have returned from the war in Iraq or Afghanistan have either committed a murder or been charged with one.
Last year, soldiers committed suicide at the highest rate ever recorded in US history - there were at least 115 confirmed suicides, an increase of 13 from the year before.
While the stop-loss policy attempts to maintain the number of US service men and women overseas, Pentagon records have shown that since 2003 more than 43,000 combat troops "listed as medically unfit" - some of whom, like Buzzell, suffer from post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan regardless.
A study by the Rand Corporation released in April said nearly 20 per cent of military personnel returning from Iraq or Afghanistan showed signs of PTSD. Only half of those soldiers sought medical treatment.
Buzzell believes these kinds of findings are the inevitable result of troops serving numerous tours of duty in war zones.
Buzzell was diagnosed with PTSD, which manifests in depression and chronic insomnia, on his return from Iraq after his 2003 tour. He initially drank heavily. "A [drafted] soldier went to Vietnam and he did one tour - now it is multiple tours and that's totally draining for a soldier," Buzzell said. "One tour is bad enough - three, four, or five tours and the guy is going to be messed up ... Maybe not immediately but sometime down the road."
The long-term expense of the stop-loss policy has the potential to outweigh the detrimental effects evident now, Buzzell says.
"I don't think our country is prepared to handle the thousands and thousands of veterans who are going to have these serious problems."
A recent Hollywood film release, Stop-Loss, portrays a soldier who goes on the run after receiving his stop-loss orders. But Buzzell says "going AWOL" is not an option.
"I like it here in San Francisco," he says.
"I served my country and I fought for my country. I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do but if push came to shove and I had to choose between jail and living in another country to avoid military service, I would choose jail.
"If the Army needs bodies so badly to go over there and fight the war, they should start up a draft and get people who haven't been over there to go - that's my personal feeling."
Buzzell, who was disciplined by the Army for his revelatory blog entries (www.cbftw.blogspot.com) the last time he was stationed in Iraq, admits he has little idea about what awaits him after he reports to base.
Yet he promises that he will continue to bring attention to the life of a contemporary US combat troop.
"If the Army thought I was a problem last time wait until they send me back there again," Buzzell said. "I'm going to be blogging about everything."
The Iraq war - by the numbers
* US$600 billion: Total cost so far to taxpayers (President Bush has asked for an additional US$200 billion for 2008).
* US$12 billion: Monthly spending in 2008 by the US Government for the war.
* US$390,000: Total cost of one year's service by a US soldier.
* US$10 billion: "Mismanaged & wasted" funds in Iraq (according to February 2007 Congressional Hearings.)
* 150,000: US troops serving in Iraq.
* 1.6 million: US troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
* 4085: US troops killed: (more than half were under 25).
* 30,143: US troops seriously wounded (20 per cent are severe brain or spinal injuries).
* 30 per cent: US troops suffering from psychological disorders.
