Before we all go down the path of believing the BBC consider what the nice chaps at ARRSE are saying, the BBC seem to be including EVERYONE in those figures including AWOL which is a very different case to desertion - still, why let the facts get in the way of another anti-mil story?
http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/...c/start=0.html
The number of desertions is at an all time high.
Not according to this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/776462.stm
Seems they can't even remember their own reporting from few years back(thanks to an ARRSEr for the link) Obviously that was all down to Iraq and Afganistan and the evil Bush/Blair too
Still, at least then they knew then that there's a difference between AWOL and desertion!