'Mum factor' hurts troop recruitment
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-06-03 11:43 The "mum factor" is hurting recruitment in
Britain's armed forces as mothers discourage their children from joining for
fear they will be killed in Iraq, a general said.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Major General Andrew Ritchie added
that troops have suffered a loss of morale because of public opposition to the
war and because of legal action against soldiers and officers accused of human
rights abuses.
Recruitment has suffered as mothers in particular resist having their sons
and daughters sent on a mission that is both dangerous and unpopular, said
Ritchie, who retired as commandant of Sandhurst in April.
"There is a mum factor. Mums find Iraq deeply unpopular -- they are concerned
that their youngsters will be exposed to real risk and danger," Ritchie told the
newspaper.
"That worries them. And mums are hugely influential in boys and girls joining
the army," he said.
Although Britain's Ministry of Defence expects to meet 85 percent of its
recruitment needs for 2005-2006, the shortfall last year rose by more than 300
percent, leaving more than 2,000 vacancies, the newspaper reported.
More women than men oppose the war in Iraq, according to opinion polls.
General Ritchie said he remains a supporter of the US-led invasion of Iraq
that overthrew Saddam Hussein.
"It was a pernicious regime. Iraq is a better place now," he told the
newspaper, though he admitted that some areas have become a "cauldron" in which
conditions are harder than anything the army has faced for a generation.
"As a coalition, we were not as prepared as we might have been for the
post-conflict situation," he was quoted as saying.
The British Broadcasting Corporation reported on May 28 that at least 1,000
troops have deserted Britain's armed forces since the US-led war was launched in
Iraq three years ago.
Saying the report was not true, Britain's defence ministry said it knew of
only "a handful of deserters since 1989".
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