Four Republican Congressmen this week sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, urging him to not use “stop-loss” to ensure the Pentagon can send 21,000 additional troops to Iraq under President Bush’s new plan. Leading the “end stop-loss” charge, again—he did this last year, as well—is Rep. Christopher Shays (Conn.). He is joined by Randy Kuhl (N.Y.), Steven LaTourette (Ohio), and James Ramstad (Minn.). (The Air Force and Navy early in the war on terror employed stop-loss, but the Army has continued the practice over the years.) The primary question posed to Gates by the legislators: How will the department provide the manpower for the surge?
The Air Force’s study of possible links to elevated rates of cancer among personnel who worked on intercontinental continental ballistic missiles has begun, the commander in charge of the U.S. ICBM fleet confirmed March 28. The initial phase of that study will mine cancer registries for information and compile a…