Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging thinktanker, aspiring novelist, "tribal elder", 2019 parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, "Speedboat", "The Cockroach", eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Soldiering On
Military recruitment is at its highest for five years. The recession? No doubt a factor. But at least as important is the successful, if basically false, presentation of the end of British involvement in the Iraq War.
Oh I dont think the "end" of the war in Iraq has been a factor at all. Any good news has been more than offset by the ongoing debacle in Afghanistan. I understand that there have been two fatalities announced today.... To some extent the British Government has been "lucky" (horribly insensitive word to use and I apologise for not thinking of a more fitting one) that casualties are usually in ones and twos. A single major incident in Afghanistan (eg the downing of a troop carrier plane) might cause a deeper public revulsion. This is perhaps the problem with a volunteer (non conscripted) army...it is difficult to imagine that a conscripted army would have been so callously treated. Of course economic downtown is effectively creating a conscript army by stealth.
About as much as Kevan Jones has for attributing it to the recession, Ali. Except that mine is more plausible. The Forces openly blamed low recruitment on the Iraq War for several years.
Well, at one time the Army even put someone up on Newsnight to say that they couldn't recruit because of the war. Now we are pretending that the war is over. And, would you believe it, recruitment is up.
That war continues to be given the benefit of the doubt by much of the public, because it has never been properly debated in the way that Iraq was. If it were, then it wouldn't be.
Whether it's a just war or not, the prospect of getting blown up by a pipe bomb is unlikely to be massively appetising for most people, I would have thought.
What evidence do you have for this claim?
ReplyDeleteOh I dont think the "end" of the war in Iraq has been a factor at all. Any good news has been more than offset by the ongoing debacle in Afghanistan. I understand that there have been two fatalities announced today....
ReplyDeleteTo some extent the British Government has been "lucky" (horribly insensitive word to use and I apologise for not thinking of a more fitting one) that casualties are usually in ones and twos. A single major incident in Afghanistan (eg the downing of a troop carrier plane) might cause a deeper public revulsion.
This is perhaps the problem with a volunteer (non conscripted) army...it is difficult to imagine that a conscripted army would have been so callously treated.
Of course economic downtown is effectively creating a conscript army by stealth.
About as much as Kevan Jones has for attributing it to the recession, Ali. Except that mine is more plausible. The Forces openly blamed low recruitment on the Iraq War for several years.
ReplyDeleteActually your explanation is not in any way plausible.
ReplyDeleteWell, at one time the Army even put someone up on Newsnight to say that they couldn't recruit because of the war. Now we are pretending that the war is over. And, would you believe it, recruitment is up.
ReplyDeleteSo the kids all want to get posted to Afghanistan, then?
ReplyDeleteThat war continues to be given the benefit of the doubt by much of the public, because it has never been properly debated in the way that Iraq was. If it were, then it wouldn't be.
ReplyDeleteWhether it's a just war or not, the prospect of getting blown up by a pipe bomb is unlikely to be massively appetising for most people, I would have thought.
ReplyDeleteAnd such people were never going to join the Forces, no matter what.
ReplyDelete