Prince Harry in Afghanistan

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by handihoc:

Latest news is he's now being withdrawn.

Not really "latest" news, as Cpl Steiner accurately reported that in the first post...of course he is being withdrawn, now that the big mouths in Australia and the United States shot their gobs off about him. The British press showed admirable restraint, as they're capable of on occasion, in letting the prince serve with quiet dignity and fulfill his destiny with the troops. A shame that the foreign press thought their own profits were more important than the war effort.

[MarkEzra]

Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

the big mouths in Australia and the United States shot their gobs off about him. The British press showed admirable restraint, as they're capable of on occasion, in letting the prince serve with quiet dignity and fulfill his destiny with the troops. A shame that the foreign press thought their own profits were more important than the war effort. [/QB]

In the US that Great Patriot and RightWing closet Queen, Matt Drudge...picked it up from an Australian Woman's Mag, ignoring the Obvious risk it placed British troops. I truly despise lapel-pin patriots like him.

[MikeyD]

I recall during the Faulklands War (Holy crap, 26 years ago now?) one of the princes served in the war. I can't recall in what capacity - pilot? 'Royalty' by definition is the country's warrior class. The peasants would plow the fields, the royals would fight the wars. Not one man in a thousand had the financial resources for a good horse, full suit of armor, and associated costs.

[gibsonm]

Mikey,

Look on page one and read my posts and it will tell you (twice)!

Originally posted by gibsonm:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by GSX:

At least hes doing something though and seems to be taking his military bit more seriously than his playing at soldiers brother.

Then again, he is the spare!

Just like his uncle, Prince Andrew, who flew helo’s off either HMS Invincible or HMS Hermes as a decoy for Argentinean exocets during the Falklands War. </font>

[LongLeftFlank]

So I guess there's no chance now we'll get to watch paparazzi getting their heads sawn off on the Internet by the Taliban after trying to get exclusives of the Prince.

Or getting an artillery or air strike "accidentally" called in on their position.

Which would be fitting revenge in a way....

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by MarkEzra:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

the big mouths in Australia and the United States shot their gobs off about him. The British press showed admirable restraint, as they're capable of on occasion, in letting the prince serve with quiet dignity and fulfill his destiny with the troops. A shame that the foreign press thought their own profits were more important than the war effort.

In the US that Great Patriot and RightWing closet Queen, Matt Drudge...picked it up from an Australian Woman's Mag, ignoring the Obvious risk it placed British troops. I truly despise lapel-pin patriots like him. [/QB]</font>

[gibsonm]

Well if he's done 10 weeks out of 14, the TP SGT can cover for the rest.

This has just confirmed the reputation of the rag responsible here. Its title is "New Idea" but everyone refers to it as "No Idea" and it seems to have lived up to that.

They really should stick to diets, celebrity sex and all the other dross that seems to sell these glossy bird cage liners.

[flamingknives]

Originally posted by handihoc:

You can watch some of the news footage here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/

and check out those vehicles

Handihoc,

Presumably you mean the CVR(T)s?

(They may look like tinker's wagons, but I think that's the default appearance of British AFVs in combat.)

[gibsonm]

Yes Scimitar is the AFV used by the Blues and Royals, HRH's Regt.

[handihoc]

Yes, but I was referring in an earlier post to the camouflage they're wearing in some of the footage. It really changes their profile in the field, and it'd be a welcome addition to CMSF.

And Mikey D, I still can't afford a full suit of armour.

[Bigduke6]

Just for the record, the German magazine Bild ran the Harry story at the same time as the New Idea. Kind of peculiar two different glitz mags at such widely-separated points, in such different markets, decide to run the story the same day.

It's almost as if some one fed the two magazines the information. Or, considering other agencies (not just the British press, the international wire agencies had been sitting on the information as well AIUI) maybe some reporter or editor somewhere got sick of being a patsie and staying shut up.

No proof that's what happened here, but heck, I've even known journos devious enough to go public with information they were supposed to keep quiet on, after the government people that asked them to keep quiet, lied or otherwise broke their word to the reporters.

It happens you know. We'll fly you to Helmand province, we'll give you security, we won't get in your way, we'll let you go to that town, we'll let you take that picture - and then it turns out the mission changed, the officer fibbed, actually government guy wasn't telling the truth. Do it enough, even lazy journos will start thinking of ways to get even.

That's all speculation of course. Perhaps the ability of a pair of glam magazines to blow one of Whitehall's best-kept secrets was the result of hard-nosed reporting.

In any case, Drudge just repeated what the Aussies and the Germans already had.

In less well-reported news, the US military has decided that Afghanistan is 25 - 30 per cent held by NATO, 10 - 15 per cent by the Taliban, and 60 per cent by warlords not taking orders from any one, and mostly in the heroin business.

I bet Prince Harry called in those air strikes really bravely on the Taliban bit (well, his handlers say it was the Taliban bit) at moderate risk to himself and at stunning cost to taxpayers.

Perhaps the young man won his spurs, adding another glorious page to the history of battling English royalty, right up there with Agincourt. Just maybe, no one will think of him as Harry the Nazi any more.

[Webwing]

Originally posted by handihoc:

Yes, but I was referring in an earlier post to the camouflage they're wearing in some of the footage. It really changes their profile in the field, and it'd be a welcome addition to CMSF.

And Mikey D, I still can't afford a full suit of armour.

I also think the camouflage is pretty cool.

I saw a Warrior and what looked like a Scimitar in the footage but the vehicle Harry is in is a Spartan, used by special teams, Signals and Engineer specialists and where you would expect the JTAC to be.

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