Iraq war blamed for resignation of thousands of UK reservists
Iraq-UK, Politics, 6/15/2006

Some 50 percent of reservists have resigned from Britain's Territorial Army since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, according to detailed information obtained under the country's Freedom of Information Act.

The figures obtained by the Scottish National Party (SNP) show that between October 2003 and October 2005, the Territorial Army lost 15,670 soldiers.

Although there is generally a high number of turnover among reservists, the resignees were replaced by only 13,570 new recruits, leaving a further shortfall of 2,100 among its 32,000 members.

An SNP member of the Scottish Parliament, Christine Grahame, said that the resignations were a clear signal of the crisis in the Armed Forces "as a result of this hugely damaging Iraq war and a defence and foreign policy which is storing up massive problems." More than 13,000 reservists, including from Britain's Territorial Army, have so far served in Iraq to help offset the overstretch suffered by the Armed Forces, which are also deployed in Afghanistan and the Balkans, among other overseas operations.

In March, the government's watchdog, the National Audit Office, warned about the growing shortfall in the number of military reservists, which total some 84,000, saying that it found one-in-six were planning to leave next year.

It highlighted an already 20 percent shortfall in recruitment, and said that it would now be difficult to sustain military operations without their help.

Previous Stories:
  Time to withdraw UK troops from Iraq, say families   (6/10/2006)
  Hope for inquiry into UK soldiers' deaths in Iraq   (6/7/2006)
  85 percent of police trained in southern Iraq, says UK   (6/7/2006)

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