Should Prince Harry be allowed to serve in Iraq?

[C C Csiders]

CONSPIRACY THEORIES #1

The 'Palace' will be gutted (do you think they use that word?) if he doesn't go. The whole thing is a ruse to get him exterminated so that they can get someone third in line to the throne, but without any royal blood, out of the way.

 

[Uncle Leo]

As a footnote I am thinking of producing a limited edition run of 'Royal tour of duty - Iraq 2007' commemorative tea towels to sell Mail/Express readers.

Does anyone want to come in with me on this venture?

I've just ordered a job lot of porcelain plates and mugs with exactly this in mind. Let's go in to business.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Its nepotism of the worse kind.

Just because his father was a major in the Army is no reason why he shouldn't be sent to Iraq.

 

[Jam_Man]

Does seem to be some over simplifying of the situation though.

Its not just whether Harry should risk his life, but whether him being there would increase attacks in an attempt to kill him.

After all, if we are losing 10 soldiers a month, and he goes over there and that goes up to 15 a month it would have had a negative affect and 5 other lads would have lost their lives.

Tricky one, and by the sounds of it today they arent going to let him fight.

The media are really annoying they are already blaming an attack on a Scimitar the other week on Harry's involment saying insurgents are practising for when he arrives, yeah right.

 

[Firestorm]

Maybe they can use him as a decoy to draw the Tailban out, then spring an ambush.. Ok Harry cops a few rounds first but they can work wonders those Doctors these days!

That would be counter productive as we could really do without the taleban being in Iraq as well (although I am sure the boys in Afghanistan would say otherwise)

 

[JoshC]

Harry will bring attacks and will put people in danger, how is this good?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Harry will bring attacks and will put people in danger, how is this good?

Wasn't that Bush and Blair who did that by (illegally) declaring war?

 

[HawkwellShrimper]

TBH what I don't like is that if he goes to Iraq he goes as some sort of leader and has 12 men under him! I think they should have to work there way up the ranks! How is Harry in anyway prepared when he has never fought in a war zone before?! Maybe the Army Bods on here can explain cos I am a little confused?!

 

[JoshC]

Wasn't that Bush and Blair who did that by (illegally) declaring war?

maybe so but going to war with what could be the future king is going to put him and his group (?) in alot of danger, whether we should have gone to war or not is irellevant to this issue,we are at war and putting a target into the army won't help at all

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

I would suggest that the only people who are qualified to comment on this are the ones like chadded who are either current serving members of our armed forces, or those who have served and been in war zones.

I'd rather not, though ...

;)

 

[Davros]

Here is an intresteing plan..Shave his bonce, dye his hair

am i the only one that thinks dying some ones hair once you shaved it all off is a bit pointless....

 

[Kent Shrimper]

Difficult shout as he will potentially put others at risk, However anyone that wants to serve and protect our fine land should be allowed to.

Fair play to Ging, i just hope he isnt as bad a shot as he is for the Shrimpers.

 

[chadded]

TBH what I don't like is that if he goes to Iraq he goes as some sort of leader and has 12 men under him! I think they should have to work there way up the ranks! How is Harry in anyway prepared when he has never fought in a war zone before?! Maybe the Army Bods on here can explain cos I am a little confused?!

He's a commissioned Officer in the British Army. As such, he does a year at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and then, is commissioned as an officer, and joins his respective cap badge/ corps, ie the Infantry, Engineers etc. In a nutshell, he does a very intensive course, that effectively teaches leadership within the Army, as highlighted by the RMAS motto, Serve to lead. In my platoon at work, the Platoon Commander, ie, what Cornet Wales (Harry) is, an a junior officer, who came out of Sandhurst only last December. If reality, its the Staff Sergeant with 15 years experience, who really runs the show, although officially he is the 2ic of the platoon.

 

[the_forgotten_man]

I believe very strongly that Harry shouldn't go to Iraq, not because I feel the third in line to the throne shouldn't be put in danger, but because his being out there could lead to disaster.

When Harry is out there (as seems likely now), can you imagine what a big target he will be. Can you imagine what a HUGE PR victory it would be if one of the nutcases killed him. If they killed him, not only would it be a huge moral-drainer for our troops, the insurgance fighters would have the biggest incentive to keep on fighting, harder than ever before, and that would jepordise our position out there.

Under normal circumstances, i.e. a normal war, I would have nothing against Harry going out there. But this is no ordinary war, its a series of terrorist attacks being carried out on our troops, and therefore, single men can be targeted, which only makes him more likely to die.

Finally, I would agree with several other people on here, that whilst he is there, he is bringing danger to his fellow fighters, and their safety should come before his wish to be treated normally.

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

He's a commissioned Officer in the British Army. As such, he does a year at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and then, is commissioned as an officer, and joins his respective cap badge/ corps, ie the Infantry, Engineers etc. In a nutshell, he does a very intensive course, that effectively teaches leadership within the Army, as highlighted by the RMAS motto, Serve to lead. In my platoon at work, the Platoon Commander, ie, what Cornet Wales (Harry) is, an a junior officer, who came out of Sandhurst only last December. If reality, its the Staff Sergeant with 15 years experience, who really runs the show, although officially he is the 2ic of the platoon.

Exactly what I was going to say, particularly the comment highlighted above. It's the SNCOs who are in charge but it's the officers who tend to have to make the decisions (albeit 'suggested' by the SNCO).

That said, we used to dread the arrival of a new subaltern to our unit and they tended (but not always) to want to exert their authority straight away. I remember one occasion that I was on a two-day "pit stop" in Banja Luka (we worked on high-level mountain-top comms locations for three or four weeks at a time before being brought down for proper scoff and a bit of a decent sleep for 48 hours) and I was asked by the OC to take a new 2Lt over to Bihac, a journey of about two hours in decent weather. Except it wasn't decent weather. It was gently snowing and the ice was about 3 or 4 inches thick in the road. However that didn't matter too much because we had all had intensive training in winter driving. About an hour into the trip the road condition deteriorated yet I was still in control as I took corner after corner with much precision and skill (and a little exciting slide). Yet I could sense the young officer was not happy. We crossed over the Dayton Accord Line, a division which in 1996 separated Bosnian Serb areas from the others, and continued with good pace towards Bihac. The road was even worse and I admit there were a couple of time where I thought I'd lost all control. But the adrenalin was running and it was fun to see this young subaltern fidgeting uncomfortably next to me. After a particular long sideward slide (of which I had full control), the officer sat bolt upright, turned to me and uttered the six words that almost killed me: "Cpl Smith, please pull over now!" I briefly argued against the decision - as Chadded will know, there is sometimes no point arguing for much more than a few seconds with these youngsters - and then pulled over to the side of the road with the passenger side up against a snow-covered bank. I turned and gave him a "what?" look (with accompanying shrug of shoulder) and he said that he wanted the snow chains to be placed on the wheels now. I argued that this would slow progress and that I was in full control, but he wouldn't have it. I looked out of my side window, rolled it down a few inches and listened. There were clear gunshots in the woods high up on the ridge across the other side of the river which flowed alongside the road. There was no war; it had ended a few months earlier. But there were still people who wouldn't give up their guns; they tended to get ****ed a lot; they tended to take pot shots at anyone and everyone. "Listen to that," I said. "This is not a good place to stop - sirrr!" But he wouldn't have it and so, with much cursing under the breath, I walked around the back of the rover, pulled out the snowchains and gave the officer a very quick brief because I was damned if I was doing them both myself. So, with the sound of gunshot in the near distance, I crouched down and started putting on the snow chains and the officer did the same thing on the passenger side. The gunshots continued behind me. I was a tad nervous and still cursing this young officer. All of a sudden there were two very loud "zziiiiiiiiiips" inches above our heads and the snow-covered bank behind the officer exploded briefly sending snow and earth in all directions as two bullets impacted into it. I looked over the bonnet and there was a wide-eyed white face staring back at me in sheer terror. "Yes - ermmm - well, I think we should be on our way, Cpl Smith!" he spluttered. "But what about the snow chains?" I replied, trying very hard to disguise the mixture of sarcasm and contempt. "Yes - ermmmm - well, just manage. I'm sure you can!" he replied, crawling into the rover and wedging himself into the passenger footwell, leaving me to collect the snow chains (he'd made an absolute mess of his) and lobbing them into the back of the rover. The gunshots continued but it seemed the antagonist had found something else to shoot at in between long slugs of Slivovitz. For the rest of the journey to Bihac, I made sure that every turn was executed at the very limit of control and each time the subaltern wedged his body between the footwell and the roof lining. I delivered him to Bihac, picked up a major and a Canadian captain (the former offered to drive back as well) and arrived back in Banja Luka at about 7.00pm to hear news that the new subaltern had been telling all and sundry about a firefight that we had engaged in just outside Prijedor. He was posted back to Germany within a week ...