MoD is turning our Army into a laughing stock

Your article last week about troops being offered the chance to duck out of fighting on the front line and work a three-day-week, so that the Ministry of Defence can pay them less and save money, must make people like Vladimir Putin very happy. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of his military attachés had thought up this scheme. If the culprit is British, they should be locked in the Tower!

Colonel Richard Kemp is right in his commentary that this will turn our Armed Forces into a laughing stock, unable to operate anywhere.

There are only two ways forward now, due to the lack of leadership shown by various governments, and that is to either bring back a type of National Service or disband our Forces entirely. However, since our leaders cannot lead their way out of the local pub, there is little chance of either happening.

They want to entice ex-sailors back to fill the ranks, but that will not happen after the way they have been treated, and most of them will be settled as civilians now. The Army is also in a state of nearcollapse due to the same problem of extreme under-manning. And as for the RAF, well, maybe we should bring in mercenaries from abroad.

Unfortunately politicians would sooner surrender to the enemy and I honestly now feel, as an exsoldier, that this is their only plan.

Mike McIntosh, Bexhill-on-Sea

Are we to have an I-don’t-wantto-go-to-war Army now? I was in the Army in the 1950s and I was on duty 24/7. We were lucky if we ever got 48 hours’ leave, let alone 72.

For the sake of sanity, please give us a full-time Army.

Tom Edwards, Swansea

I think I’ve heard it all now – paying soldiers not to be on the front line. Isn’t fighting what being a soldier entails? A soldier like this would be like a dentist who doesn’t go near anyone’s teeth.

Owen Hollifield, Bargoed, South Wales

We are told that these plans are so that the military can be more family-orientated. Are the people behind this living on another planet? We should spend more money on our military, not reduce

our Forces to a Dad’s Army version. Alternatively, we should scrap our so-called military and spend the money on hospitals, schools, nursing homes and other infrastructure.

It won’t be long before the Vatican’s Swiss Guard will be stronger than our military.

A.P. Moxham, Great Harwood, Lancashire

Your article about the Armed Forces possibly working a threeday week illustrates what crazy times we live in. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny.

Chris Sharp, Leeds

I agree with Colonel Richard Kemp – this will undermine our national defence, and the MoD has got its priorities wrong.

A. Brown, Kingston