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July 3, 2007
Voting with their feet
From Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - The armed forces, stretched by deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, are suffering shortfalls in personnel that could jeopardise their operating capability, a parliamentary committee said on Tuesday.
More staff are leaving the armed forces early, partly due to the pressures of long tours of duty overseas. Recruitment is not keeping pace, leading to a shortfall of almost 6,000 personnel or 3.2 percent in April 2007, said parliament's Public Accounts Committee.
The Liberal Democrats, who were against the Iraq war, said the report showed personnel faced an "intolerable burden" and called for a timetable on withdrawal from Iraq.
For more go here
Posted by andrew on July 3, 2007 12:04 PM in the category War in Iraq
Comments
The Hansard report: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmpubacc/43/43.pdf (starts around page 21) gives a very illuminating overview. In particular the evidence put forward by Bill Jeffrey (Permanent Under-Secretary of State) is revealing, if not unexpected. This is one Committee which has repeatedly shown itself to be pretty robust, rightly so, and the comments by Edward Leigh and Richard Bacon are always entertaining.
Suffice to say that MoD were justifiably roasted for their customary laissez faire approach.
Posted by: Chuck Unsworth ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 3, 2007 5:21 PM
I don’t want to be nihilist, but I have to be. Robust committee makes not a blind bit of difference.
"Well Done" I say to those turning their backs on the army. I wish I had the power to find out how many people in the country believe as I do, that the army should be used for defence once attacked and not initiators of aggression or pre-emptors. I suspect that the army would NEVER have a problem with recruitment if its purpose was for the defence. Trouble is, it isn’t!
Posted by: Tonys Akiller at July 4, 2007 3:24 PM
Isn't most of the British army in Germany waiting for the Soviet tanks? Perhaps if forces were redeployed out of continental Europe there would be more resources.
Posted by: hatfield girl at July 4, 2007 5:06 PM
"I suspect that the army would NEVER have a problem with recruitment if its purpose was for the defence."
Quite true.
Posted by: ChoamNomsky at July 4, 2007 5:17 PM