2,000 troops sent to Iraq 'didn't even know how to point a rifle'

[emad]

The Times
By Andrew Norfolk
Thousands of reservists sent into battle had failed basic weapons test, court martial is told

MORE than 2,000 British soldiers were sent to serve in Iraq even though they had failed a basic weapons test, it was revealed yesterday.

The Territorial Army reservists, who should not even have been allowed access to a firing range, were sent to the Gulf war zone in a direct contravention of Army regulations.

Some of the country’s highest ranking officers have now been ordered by a court to explain how the mass “watering down” of standards was allowed to happen.

Many reservists were so poor at handling their weapons that they arrived in southern Iraq with notes warning that they had been graded as a “high” safety risk. Others did not even know how to make a rifle “point straight”.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1322782,00.html

[durablend]

1. Remember...these are those "skilled troops"

Bushit is sending there in lieu of a draft.

[Wcross]

8. Correction- Blair sent them- they are British soldiers...n/t

[aden_nak]

2. Well, they're running out of ammunition anyhow.

[Guy_Montag]

3. Hey Tony

your a fucking twat.

You got us into this you take responsibility.

[UpInArms]

4. I think we might be equipping them with this

[Az_lefty]

5. Hard to imagin why the Brits would do this...

it isn't that hard to train someone in basic marksmanship.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. I think these are real idiots

"The court martial at Catterick, North Yorkshire, has heard evidence from the defence that Lance Corporal Blaymire was among 949 TA soldiers who were sent to Iraq despite failing a weapon-handling test at the Reserve Training and Mobilisation Centre in Chilwell, Nottingham over a seven-month period. All had either failed to achieve the “skilled” standard required in all five sections of the Army weapon-handling test — which assessed tasks including loading, unloading, strapping, assembly and magazine filling — or had been under the guidance of incompetent instructors. Five arms instructors at Chilwell, it was revealed, were “not competent” because they had not achieved the required standard in their own weapon-handling test."

I suspect that this means they were so desperate for troops to send out there that they thought "they're not frontline troops, what harm can it do?"

[Az_lefty]

7. Didn't know all of that, what a screwed up system.