3 days ago
SAS witch hunts have led to recruitment crisis, former officer warns
SAS witch hunts have damaged morale and led to a recruitment crisis within the elite regiment, says a former commanding officer.
Brigadier Ed Butler, who commanded the SAS in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and led the regiment in Afghanistan in 2001, said it's 'not surprising' the Hereford-based unit is also failing to retain experienced troops.
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Special forces sources have said that since the start of a series of so-called witch hunts against troops who served on operations in Northern Ireland 30-years ago the number of soldiers attempting SAS selection has fallen.
They also claim that more troops are leaving the elite organisation in disgust at the treatment of veterans.
Brigadier Butler, one of the SAS's most highly decorated and distinguished officers, told The Sun on Sunday: 'The politicians are happy to ask our Special Forces to prosecute government and foreign policies, in the most challenging and dangerous of conditions, to protect our democratic values and freedoms but are not prepared to stick up for them when the witch hunts start.
'Hardly surprising that morale is low, retention is a problem and now potential recruits are not trying SAS selection as they and their families are worried what might happen to them 10 or 20 years after fighting on the front line. You can't have it both ways.'
The SAS is currently at the centre of an inquiry into allegations that members of the special forces routinely murdered civilians during the war in Afghanistan.
Up to 20 SAS veterans, who served in Northern Ireland and shot dead armed IRA terrorists, are facing murder charges, according to senior members of the SAS regiment.
The SAS Association have said: 'It is certainly true that there is real concern and extreme unease amongst SAS soldiers and commanders.
"They operate on the front line, often in extreme danger, sometimes at the murky edges of the law.
'There is genuine and justifiable concern that an SAS man may bravely and legally do his duty today, and then, in decades time, be persecuted for it if some revisionist government moves the goal-posts in retrospect.'
Figures relating to staffing levels for the SAS are kept secret but sources say there's been a 'noticeable and significant percentage drop'.
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