Vote on Tuesday.
Do the right thing.
Posted on 11/03/2002 7:03:13 PM PST by blam
Reservists ordered to mobilise
By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 04/11/2002)
Enforced mobilisation of up to 10,000 reservists will be announced by the Government this week in preparation for a war on Iraq.
In a move not seen since the Korean War, a Queen's Order will give defence chiefs widespread and highly controversial rights to call up many more people than would normally be available.
Senior officers from all the units involved have been summoned to a meeting at the Ministry of Defence today to be briefed on the mass mobilisation.
The announcement could come this afternoon with Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, answering a question in the Commons from a primed Labour backbencher.
The mobilisation is part of continued attempts by Britain and America to increase the pressure on Saddam Hussein to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
The Queen's Order, which has to be signed by the Queen, will ensure that the Armed Forces have the largest possible pool of reservists to call upon.
It has been forced on the Government after attempts to call up key personnel for the war in Afghanistan were thwarted by regulations that allowed reservists and employers to block the move.
Normally reservists need only serve for six months in any two years. But a Queen's Order allows them to be called up indefinitely no matter how recently they served.
Some reservists now coming to the end of their six-month call-up as part of the war on terror will be told that they must remain serving. Others mobilised for the war in Afghanistan will be recalled.
It also means members of the Services discharged within the past 12 years and any reservists who left the reserve forces within the past five years are eligible for call-up.
"This is a very drastic measure," one source said. "It is what we would have done if the Russians invaded western Europe and for reasons of national survival.
"It opens up the number of people eligible and means all previous bets are off. There will be no arguments for not going on business or personal reasons and if you refuse the police are likely to come knocking on your door."
In theory, refusal to take part could result in a reservist being taken into military custody with the possibility of the call-up being challenged in the civilian courts.
It is unlikely that any single case would be allowed to go that far because of the risk of it becoming a cause celebre among anti-war campaigners.
The mobilisation, which is expected to be matched in America this week, is seen as further pressure on Saddam.
The source said: "It was previously known simply as the coercion plan but is now known as 'Force on Mind' with three components: credibility, timeliness and consequences.
"Saddam will know that no British effort can be credible without dependence on large numbers of troops. In order to do the job we have to make a mass call-up of reservists and this is it. It shows we could not be more serious."
MoD plans to begin deploying a reduced strength armoured division and an aircraft carrier task force to the Gulf this month have been disrupted by Treasury complaints that it would cost too much.
But it is thought that ultimately Tony Blair would overrule Gordon Brown's objections and order the deployment to go ahead.
The Government was wary of courting controversy with a Queen's Order and wanted to ask for volunteers. But defence chiefs said that would produce only a few hundred.
Logistics personnel from all three Services will be among the first called up together with special forces, intelligence and signals reservists.
They will be followed by up to 10,000 other troops, some of them simply "backfilling" for troops deployed to the Gulf, others providing battlefield replacements for any troops killed or wounded in Iraq.
They will include specialists such as engineers and medics who have been stripped away from the Armed Forces by successive defence cuts, primarily the Options for Change introduced by the Major government in the early 1990s.
During the 1991 Gulf war only 1,500 reservists were called up but that was only achieved by gutting the army in Germany and the UK. Cuts and commitments such as the firemen's strike mean a much larger call-up this time.
The MoD had planned to introduce the mobilisation surreptitiously with an announcement made as call-up orders arrived on the door mats of the first reservists.
But when ministers were told that this would take two weeks they feared news might leak out early, causing even more controversy.
Do the right thing.
Sounds pretty serious. What's a Queen's Order?
The last great battle by the British Army against the forces of Islam took place in 1898. Twenty thousand fanatical Dervish- I pay tribute to their bravery, charged the British lines. This was at Omdurman in the Sudan.
Field Marshall Lord Kitchener must be watching. All is not lost, for if- and it is a big if- this will be a righteous cause.
This will be quite bigger than Afghanistan. I expect preparations are being made to comprehend the chance that some other ME country will intervene. (Say Syria/Iran?)
The last great battle by the British Army against the forces of Islam took place in 1898. Twenty thousand fanatical Dervish- I pay tribute to their bravery, charged the British lines. This was at Omdurman in the Sudan. They were annihilated .
Field Marshall Lord Kitchener must be watching from above. All is not lost, for if- and it is a big if- this will be a righteous cause.
I guess they are waiting until after the election to announce ours?
Also, I expect the National Guard will be guarding major installations in the US against terrorist attacks when the war with Iraq begins. The country will be on a serious war footing.
This war is going to be much much larger than anyone is anticipating. That's why you're seeing these kind of moves. The Chief Of The Mossad said in June to a NATO assembly in Brussels that WWIII started on 09/11/01. And he's right. This world hasn't seen anything yet. Even if by some miracle this seems to end quickly I believe it will eventually trigger a nightmare of unintended consequences. Prayers for all the troops involved.
We may be suprized at the size of the call-up.
I worry that you are correct. I think it is ironic that Fox News is presently showing some possible terrorist incidents that could occur, it isn't pretty. I think the 'prepping' of the American public has begun.
I guess they are waiting until after the election to announce ours?
The most our country could do is call up all inactive Reservists who have not completed their 6 year commitment. Anything more drastic would require reactivating the draft. I just looked at the Selective Service Web site and it said:
STATEMENT Status of the SSS After the September 11th Terrorist Attacks on the U.S. The Selective Service System remains in a standby, caretaker status. On Wednesday, September 18, 2002, in response to a question about the draft, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld indicated that there was "not a chance" of reinstituting the draft. According to Rumsfeld, the military is successful in attracting and retaining talented people in sufficient numbers. It would take legislative action by the Congress and implementation by the President to reinstate a draft in an emergency.
I suppose the lame duck session could reinstate the draft, but it would cause a h#|| of a fuss.
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