Posted on 05/28/2006 9:02:20 AM PDT by canadianally
More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted the armed forces since the start of the 2003 Iraq war, the BBC has discovered.
It comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military personnel from refusing to participate in the occupation of a foreign country.
Some 900 have evaded capture since the Iraq war started, official figures say.
cowards.
You'd think after London the'eyd be signing up in droves.
Maybe some French in their bloodlines?
It's not a great suprise that numbers of troops deserting would rise during a time of actual war operations as opposed to during more routine peacetime operations? I think we can file this one under 'meh'...
"What is the normal number of AWOL soldiers in any given year" ?
A 1,000 number may be only a slight rise in the avg numbers.
No mention of them deserting in Iraq, though.
" A 1,000 number may be only a slight rise in the avg numbers"
The numbers are in the article for every years since 1991.
In Iraq, where would a deserter go and how would they get there?
> Just wow.
Well, keep in mind this is the Beebe - the Domestic
Enemy Press in the UK. So one needs to ask:
1. Is the story even true?
2. What is the normal peacetime desertion rate? The
numbers in story carefully avoid talking about pre-2001
and giving us any historical context.
3. Where are the AWOLs happening, and how many of these
runners have "Mohammed" in their names?
The BBC is solidly in camp with our nation hating presstitutes....
I understand the Brits have banned the BBC from ships at sea -- due to the blantant bias against the war on Islamist lunatics..
Semper Fi
Sort of like 40,000 Americans killed in car wrecks every year is astounding news, except that the avg every year.
"No mention of them deserting in Iraq, though."
Why would they desert in Iraq? Presumably most desertions are people not returning from leave.
Give the Brits 10-20 years, and they'll all get amnesty.
Lebanon and then claim to be a "hostage"
The story doesn't say that, either.
Hey, you know some of the British armed forces aren't even British citizens at all. Maybe you'd like to pop over here and tell the Brigade of Gurkhas about their lack of patriotism and lack of fight. You game?
"I understand the Brits have banned the BBC from ships at sea -- due to the blantant bias against the war on Islamist lunatics.."
I don't think thats the case. There was an incident while the invasion of Iraq was ongoing where the crew of one ship (Ark Royal) had the bbc coverage replaced with Sky News for a period of time, which was reported in the media, though that seemed to partially be in reaction to the tone of a BBC report on a crash of a helicopter flying from the ship. I tend to prefer Sky News coverage generally, but there's not usually a huge difference.
"The story doesn't say that, either."
I know it doesn't say that and I am making assumptions. Just seems to me to be common sense that, if you were going to desert the army, you'd generally do it while you were at home, not thousands of miles away in a hostile area.
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