U.K. Gen.: 'Mum Factor' Affects Recruiting

LONDON -- A British general said his country is finding it harder to recruit soldiers because mothers fear their children could be killed in Iraq.

It's called the "mum factor."

Maj. Gen. Andrew Ritchie told the Daily Telegraph that concerned mothers are a major issue for recruiters.

He said that coalition forces are facing what he calls a "cauldron" of trouble because the military wasn't prepared for what has happened after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

very little more: http://www.wftv.com/news/9316755/detail.html

edit: From muriel_volestrangler's post #2 below, and interview with the General involved: Link in msg 2.

Maj Gen Andrew Ritchie, the retiring commandant of Sandhurst, shares his forthright views about the princes, the press and politicians with Rachel Sylvester

If you have a burst pipe or a blocked drain, you might be able to persuade a well-spoken man in a neatly-pressed shirt and ferociously glossy shoes to help you out. Maj Gen Andrew Ritchie, who was until April the commandant of Sandhurst and mentor to the military academy's most famous cadets, Princes William and Harry, has just completed a plumbing course.

"It's all part of preparing for the afterlife," he says. In fact, he has also taken advantage of computer, accountancy and sailing courses offered by the Army to help him adapt to civilian life.

After three and a half years of living in style at the commandant's 12-bedroom house, Gen Ritchie and his family are now "squatting", as he puts it, in an Army lodging in East Sheen before he takes up a new posting next month as the head of a post-graduate college in Bloomsbury.

A few weeks ago, he was saluted by men in uniform wherever he went; now he spends his days rustling up lasagne for his teenage children or walking his pack of noisy dogs. Instead of summoning a driver, he takes the train.

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:)

ok it had to be sent alright!

Nearly everyone in the UK, including the military, has known that the occupation of Iraq has stunk since day one. Even Blair's much vaunted political spin machine has not managed to change that fact. Any way Britons historically are used to be led into battle by the sons of the ruling classes. The fact that most of the current UK political elite are every bit as reluctant as their US counterparts to put themselves and their families in harms way just sends out all the wrong signals to the populace. Most people think that if Blair and Co are not prepared to fight and die for this cause why should they and their families make the sacrifice.

much anyway? Not in my part of the world they don't (West Yorkshire). You'd never know there was a war on here. Every time I mention it (as the mother of two dual-national sons - if the US ever reinstates the draft, my boys will be cannon fodder even though they've never lived there), I get a "ho-hum, yes but the war doesn't really have anything to do with us does it?" kind of response. Makes me crazy.

Although personally, as far as I'm concerned you know what the army does, you know what the risks are before you join, and because of that I'm not all that sympathetic to the anti-war mums. Maybe they should have prevented their sons joining in the first place? Or maybe their sons actually WANT to be fighting for Queen and country. Certainly in my experience the soldiers that I know joined up of their own free will because they wanted to, even though they knew the risks. And good luck to them I say.

The illegal and unjust aspect is simply even more insult to a grievous and heartwrenching injury.

Funny how there seems to be irritation at these MUMS, as if, how dare they get in the way of our rounding up some cannon fodder?

Naturally no one wants their child killed, but if he or she is an only child or one of two, it is felt even more keenly.