Um... if you're not gonna respond to messages or the army for 3-4 days, why not temp pause?
I'm not familiar with the new system, but pausing used to cost you your unit. Maybe even your gold and/or bonds. And you wouldn't receive the messages from when you were paused, I think.
Whereas if you are just a few days away, you won't lose a thing. If you are gone for a week, odds are that after you lose the 5-days inactivity positions, you'll be back in time to be able to get them back.
Pausing is for when you will be gone for a while and you are in a dangerous position or otherwise threatened.
