16000 British soilders run away

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim troops ran away from US troops.

So I guess 16,000 British troops is nothing compared to the coward muslim troops.

1.Buy some weed
2.Inhale
3.Offer some to your officer (tell him its for err… therapeutic stress purposes)

Pure and simple: anyone wanting to get out of the army can do it any place any time. Think of the weed as like a cyanide pill (its can get you of the face of the earth). Pills by the way would be much easier to carry around but they’re much worse for your brain, also weed stays in your system for longer (thereby increasing the chances of a positive drug tests result).
Furthermore as no army can afford to have soldiers on illicit drugs they don’t really have a choice. Of course you’re a victim of “stress” and the army “drove you to drugs” and that’s why you’re laughing your face of (still an improvement to having it blown of).

The Big Question: What’s more illegal: Marianna or The War on Iraq? Has Marianna killed a lot of people?

Yeah but it's a dishonourable discharge or discharge after a few weeks in Colchester

Anyway as has been pointed out the OP's twisting of the facts has led to a false premise being used to start this thread in the first place. Whether this was through malice or just plain ignorance I don't know but I suspect the former

From the article:

In the past year the TA lost 5,000 personnel, leaving 32,000 members. In 1985 it had a strength of 81,000.

So I make that a loss of 49,000 soldiers since 1985.

The loss since 2003 is "almost 16,000" - who quit.

The Territorial Army has suffered a drastic loss of experienced personnel with almost 16,000 troops quitting since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. ...The reserve army, which has been widely used to support under-manned regular units in Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan, is now 7,000 below full strength.

...There are fears that the situation could become more serious as there are not enough experienced soldiers to train new recruits. The Army has come to rely heavily on the TA. More than 13,000 reservists have served in the Middle East and many have resigned on completing six-month operational tours.

The figures obtained by the Scottish National Party show that between October 2003 and last October the TA lost 15,670 soldiers who have been replaced by 13,570 new recruits - a shortfall of 2,100. ...While the TA generally has a high turnover, there is a feeling that Iraq and other dangerous operations have played a part in making soldiers decide to quit.

The losses are due to quitting, not desertion according to the article - BUT - the figures still tell a tale.

Obviously, the boys really did 'run away' - they just used legal means.

The British are just sissies Lol not really,

But the Aussie troops are over there, the quitting rate is no where near that of Britain and as much as some of our troops disagree with the war we're there and we're getting the job done without bitching about it.

Originally posted by soficrow
From the article:

In the past year the TA lost 5,000 personnel, leaving 32,000 members. In 1985 it had a strength of 81,000.

So I make that a loss of 49,000 soldiers since 1985.

The loss since 2003 is "almost 16,000" - who quit.

The Territorial Army has suffered a drastic loss of experienced personnel with almost 16,000 troops quitting since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. ...The reserve army, which has been widely used to support under-manned regular units in Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan, is now 7,000 below full strength.

...There are fears that the situation could become more serious as there are not enough experienced soldiers to train new recruits. The Army has come to rely heavily on the TA. More than 13,000 reservists have served in the Middle East and many have resigned on completing six-month operational tours.

The figures obtained by the Scottish National Party show that between October 2003 and last October the TA lost 15,670 soldiers who have been replaced by 13,570 new recruits - a shortfall of 2,100. ...While the TA generally has a high turnover, there is a feeling that Iraq and other dangerous operations have played a part in making soldiers decide to quit.

The losses are due to quitting, not desertion according to the article - BUT - the figures still tell a tale.

Obviously, the boys really did 'run away' - they just used legal means.

Yes but again those twisted facts only tell part of the story.

I notice that imposed force reduction due to chopping of the TA via defence

reviews isn't factored in. Again partial / slanted / selective use of avaialable figures to create a contraversial (and incorrect) post title.

As pointed out above the TA is less than 3,000 troops below esatblishment.

'Twas ever thus

If I was an Ozzie I would volunteer for back to back tours u get paid more and then combat pay is a lot extra and u have a more mature attitude to serving soldiers in that country