The British MoD says some 8,500 soldiers from the 59,000-strong Army are classified as unfit to serve at the front. According to the Daily Telegraph, every one of the Army’s 36 infantry battalions is affected.
When 4 Regiment Royal Artillery served in Afghanistan from September 2007 to April this year, up to 25 per cent of its troops, or 100 men, were unfit for the front.
During the same tour, the 2nd Bn Yorkshire Regiment was forced to leave behind 15 per cent of its 600 men, while 70 soldiers from the 1st Bn Coldstream Guards were also unable to serve.
The 2nd and 5th Bns of the Royal Regiment of Scotland also arrived in Afghanistan recently with 12 and 8 per cent respectively of their troops remaining in Britain.
This is alarming indeed, but hardly unusual. Unlike their predecessors, modern armies put a lot of emphasis on fighting “tour fatigue”. It doesn’t mean soldiers in the World Wars were in any better shape psychologically, quite the contrary. It simply wasn’t an issue.
Wars traditionally have been fought by men with frayed nerves — it’s in the nature of the enterprise. Military commanders of the 21st century just haven’t come to terms with this.
More on pill-popping armies here.
