16000 British soilders run away

Illegal war, Bush clueless about what to do, and a complete chaos in Iraq.

British troops cannot take the heat anymore.

Since the 2003 Iraq invasion British Territorial Army soilders begin running away.

So far, 16000 soilders have deserted the army.


Half of the Army is now gone AWOL.

Telegraph




[edit on 14-6-2006 by mr conspiracy]

HOLY *bleep*.....were did they go????

better hope Britain never gets invaded, the soldiers would have to go the hospitals and wash bed linens while the civies did there job....

I am just speechless....:shk:

was it battle of new orleans all over again? "fired 2 shots and the british started runing, down the missisipi all the way to the gulf of mexico"

I guess its no wonder their position as a world power crumbled....

just joking guys....calm down!

I don't understand. Where did you get the idea that they "ran away" from? It says they quit. Thats a lot different from desertion or awol. Over 1280 officers have resigned their commissions as well. Maybe they know something we don't?

I don't mean to be a pain but AWOL, and resigning are two different things IMO.

The Territorial Army has suffered a drastic loss of experienced personnel with almost 16,000 troops quitting since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

It goes to show that the average British soldier has a lot more sense than Tony Blair.

The military must be getting rather worried about this developing trend. They cannot round up and punish 16,000 deserters without eroding army morale even further.

There was an article in the Aussie press recently about a (British resident) Australian doctor that had already completed one tour of duty in Iraq with the British army. He flat out refused to go back on a second tour when ordered to do so. He is currently serving eighteen months in a military prison.

The British elections later this year could change quite a few things. Just as a change of government in Italy has.

This will then mean Israel and America on one side, and every other nation on Earth united on the other side.

Bush promised he would unite the world, and he certainly has.



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[edit on 14-6-2006 by Warpspeed]

Nice find.

Sadly these are not the figures for the British army (full time).

They are figures for the Territorial army, basically viewed by most as part-timers, Im not knocking the guys in the TA by this.

I nearly joined the TA, bloody glad I didnt.

Wow that's some interpretation you've put on this story! 2+2=648??

They haven't 'run away' at all - that's just provocative BS you've chosen to gain some attention. There are NOT 16,000 deserters!!!!!

There's a few things you have to understand.

Until called up every TA soldier can resign at any time.

Previously the TA were an essential part of the UK Army to be deployed as units in a central European war / home defence. Indeed the only time you could be called up to your unit and deployed was by Royal Warrant (ie a very serious situation) once that happened you were under military law and any absence would be AWOL.

My unit trained to fight the Russians and we all accepted that if we were activated the situation would be dire.

Now the TA are deployed in little packets to support / bolster the Regulars - so you don't get deployed as a unit. There is a massive difference in motivation - would you want to be the 3 out of 30 in a unit who were 'strangers'?

In general the TA are more mature, have more life experience, and (ducks) are generally more intelligent than the Regulars.

Given the unpopularity of the Iraq war, the abuse of the TA unit structure and the fact that the UK Govt has a record of ignoring TA soldiers medical and mental needs after combat I'm surprised they can still get close to their planned manning levels.

I suspect many TA feel as I do - I was quite happy to die defending my country if needed but I certainly wouldn't take the same risks to further GWB's imperialist expansion.


____________________________________________________________________
RE New Orleans - yeah very funny - my unit were proud to wear the 'Brandywine' flash, read below for the history

www.thewardrobe.org.uk...

Originally posted by Warpspeed
It goes to show that the average British soldier has a lot more sense than Tony Blair.

The military must be getting rather worried about this developing trend. They cannot round up and punish 16,000 deserters without eroding army morale even further.

There was an article in the Aussie press recently about a (British resident) Australian doctor that had already completed one tour of duty in Iraq with the British army. He flat out refused to go back on a second tour when ordered to do so. He is currently serving eighteen months in a military prison.

The British elections later this year could change quite a few things. Just as a change of government in Italy has.

This will then mean Israel and America on one side, and every other nation on Earth united on the other side.

Bush promised he would unite the world, and he certainly has.



.

[edit on 14-6-2006 by Warpspeed]

Read the article - there are not 16,000 deserters. The original poster is just seeking attention by twisting some figures into 'facts'.

What are these elections you're talking about - it's very strange but here in the UK we haven't heard of them!

If anyone attacks Britain, they'll come out of the forest. Problem is, they don't wanna fight a war for all the wrong reasons. Would you? If this country was invaded, I'd be in fatigues in a heartbeat. Ask me to go to Iraq and illegally fight a war, see yaaaaa....

They have NOT deserted.

Mr Conspiracy is just making the headlines up to satisfy his little agenda without letting boring things like facts get in the way.

Do not feed the troll

Maybe I'm not reading very well today but could some one point out to me where in the article it says ~~

By mr conspiracy
Since the 2003 Iraq invasion British Territorial Army solders begin running away.
So far, 16000 solders have deserted the army.

my bold

Link
Iraq invasion is blamed as thousands resign from TA
The Territorial Army has suffered a drastic loss of experienced personnel with almost 16,000 troops quitting since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

Quitting, and desertion are two different things, I think the tittle of this post is a straight out lie.

Maybe the buggered off coz the feel like this..........

Taking part in Blair's blood-soaked 'jolly' is not defending your country. 'Bugger that for a game of soldiers'.

You have it Sauron - 'Lie' is the word, assuming Mr Conspiracy isn't so stupid to not be able to distinguish between his interpretatation and the original article

I would have done the same, no doubt about it. I have these heros back's all the way (I'm not being sarcastic).

A pound to a piece of s**t a percentage of the resignations were down to a drop in pay as well as other things.. not just Oh dear me WW3 about to break out, balls to this I'm off..

and as for

XphilesPhan

HOLY *bleep*.....were did they go????

better hope Britain never gets invaded, the soldiers would have to go the hospitals and wash bed linens while the civies did there job....

I am just speechless....:shk:

was it battle of new orleans all over again?

"fired 2 shots and the british started runing, down the missisipi all the way to the gulf of mexico"

I guess its no wonder their position as a world power crumbled....

just joking guys....calm down!

you take the urine then end it with just joking, give me a break why post something like that then put just joking.
it just shows you read the report from the link and did what was expected by who ever wrote it you took it hook line and sinker.

I'm not saying that none of them resigned because of the current tension in Iraq at the time but no way did all of them resign because of the reason the report made out.

and them that did probably did because they could see that our great priminister who thinks his smile fixes all the problems in the UK was following monkey boy bush into his great plan for making $$$ for is daddy like a poodle on a lead and not to make the world a safer place.

Yes, the truth is that the TA is much less attractive these days and people are quitting.
Ditto the regular British army too.
(although if there is a national disaster severe enough they can all simply be ordered back to duty up 18yrs after they leave service?)

There are various reasons for this and the war in Iraq is most definitely one of them.

.....but before any of our US posters start giggling to hard over this am I not right in saying this is exactly the same sort of situation that the US forces are now facing?
IIRC US army recruitment is down (even with $20 - 40k signing on bonuses and so much so that the monthly target numbers have been lowered so that they can claim to still be hitting them) and the reservists are also having major trouble with personnel quitting.


[edit on 15-6-2006 by sminkeypinkey]

It's also worth remembering that in most cases, Territorials have a full time career as well. Being sent off to Iraq for months on end could serioulsy jeopardise that career as well as cause significant inconvenience for your employer. If you're self employed you could be facing a big reduction in income too - being Iraq doesn't mean you don't still have to pay the mortgage And if, say, you're a doctor - what happens to your usual patients whilst you're away?

People are happy to join the Territorials to train to defend Britain. But not to take the place of full time soldiers, for months on end, abroad. If they wanted to do that they'd join the full-time Army.

Money has never been the motivation for TA soldiers (it's the same as the Regulars but obviously you're only paid for the days you're in uniform).

When I was in the pay was about £13/day (it WAS a long time ago) but all of had to spend £100+ on decent kit as the issued stuff was pretty ropey (KF shirts!!). I worked it out once and counting all the awake hours it was about 65p/hour.

AFAIK the TA money has not got worse in comaprison to the Army - the way the TA are used and treated has got much worse and the justness of the cause has reached new lows.

The 16,000 soldiers running away seems to just be inflamatory and wrong.


The article listed says 15,670 people left the TA. And in that 13,570 people joined the TA. So there is 2,100 less people in the TA.

It doesn't say that there are 16,000 people that deserted the army or are awol.

I think if you are to link a story, you should at least read the facts.

To say they are running away is a weak attempt at hate.

You obviously have an agenda in the way you named the thread without the facts of the article that you chose to list.

People enlistment periods when after a period of time they can choose to continue in the military or not.

So if you have 4000 people that signed up for a four year enlistment period, and they they don't re-enlist then in your eyes they are AWOL and running awa,y and can't take the heat anymore; as you stated.

I am glad that you talked to everyone of those soldiers to form your opinion with facts.

I bet the British military is having a harder time signing and retaining soldiers because of the chance of being sent overseas into a conflict. Thus becoming a less attractive choice to British youth. And that is what the story is saying

Spreading of lies (Like 16,000 soliders are awol and deserted the army.)

And not starting a thread about how the British TA has a 2,100 troop level shortfall, and that it might show a public sentiment against the war that might degrade the military as knowledge of veteran solidiers could be lost.

I was in the TA for 24 years and never did less than 150 days a year. I did many attachments with regulars in Germany and Canada etc. and took part in some major exercises.

In 2003 I was mobilised for Op Telic 2 and did an operational tour of Iraq. Many had taken the Queens shilling for many years and made some excuse as to why they could not go these were known as the two week wonders.

A high percentage of those who did go, were not up to the Job, some were obese or grossly unfit, one was 57!!


Those in charge, had never been in charge of anything longer than two weeks. No one would make any decisions and it was a cluster.

After a few weeks I was sent to Shaibah to work with real soldiers for a while.

When I came home, I only had to attend two weekends for my bounty of £1500 tax free, I was so pissed off I never turned up again till the day I handed in my kit at the end of my paid leave.

To make things worse, the two week wonders who stayed home were promoted.

Here is a link for myspace the bottom right clip will take you into photobucket where I have uploaded 630 pics, most of Iraq.

www.myspace.com...