War blamed as 6,000 quit Territorial Army in the past year

[LynnTheDem]

Holy batshite! :wow: :wow: :wow:

War blamed as 6,000 quit Territorial Army

THE Territorial Army (TA) is suffering a manning crisis with more than 6,000 soldiers quitting in the past year because of the war in Iraq.

A £3m television advertising campaign has flopped, bringing in fewer than 600 recruits, and, at 35,000, the strength of the TA has dropped to its lowest point since it was founded in 1907. This is more than 6,000 below its required strength of 41,610.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1849461,00.html

[JohnyCanuck]

1. My teenage British niece is a member of the Territorial Army

She thinks its great because they get to go on camping trips and hiking expeditions and other fun stuff. From her description they really seem to make an effort to make it entertaining and fun for the teenagers with not much emphasis on the killing aspects of being a part-time soldier. I guess once they are already sucked in as they get older they probably introduce more of the, "How to bayonet your enemy in the guts in 3 easy steps" type of material. At any rate, since she is still in school apparently the rules are that she can't be shipped overseas.

I printed off for her a bunch of stuff about depleted uranium and the hazards it poses to troops and civilians in war zones and told her mother I was really concerned that she could end up in Iraq at some point in the not too distant future, if events continue on the current path.

Her parents are not fans of Tony bLiar anyway and her mother told me there's no way in hell they would allow her to be shipped out to Iraq, but I still worry that if things really go to hell in a hand basket she might find herself over there (or in Afghanistan) without her parents having much say in the matter.

[LynnTheDem]

2. At least the TA has the option to quit.

The UK military brass is getting very upset...could get very interesting soon. They sure didn't like hearing Jack the Strawman saying Iraq will probably be "pacified" in 10 years.

Hope they heard Rice say "less than 50 years".