So, bonny Prince Harry has said he may quit the army if he is ordered to stay away from the front line.
What would happen to any other soldier who said he would quit the army if he received legal orders to serve in a way that didn’t suit his personal preferences? “Oh, I couldn’t possibly charge that machine gun position, Sir, I’d rather be greasing the wheel bearings on the Land Rover if you don’t mind.”
He has had the great good fortune to be born into a position of unique privilege. Most soldiers join the army because it is the best economic choice for them, and some because of family tradition. He has said through his spokesmen he joined for the excitement. Can’t he buy a motorbike or a unicycle if he wants a bit of excitement?
The war wasn’t laid on for his personal excitement, or for him to make some Freudian point about his manliness.
A soldier is there to serve his or her country.
Insurgents have said that they will target Prince Harry. His presence on the front line will be counterproductive, provocative, and will expose his colleagues to additional danger - all just to prove how brave he is.
Brave would be going into our deprived inner cities, and rolling up his sleeves and doing something to help his grandmother’s poorest and most deprived subjects instead of killing foreigners. Brave would be visiting Africa and campaigning against landmines and working to promote AIDS charities, like his mother did. Brave might even be taking an principled stand on a matter of environmental interest, like his father has with organic farming.
It is bad enough that in 2007, one of the world’s richest economies and most established partial democracies still has a prince at all. It is even sadder that the only way he feels he can validate his existence is by fighting.
He’s a prince, a member of a royal family. Therefore he’s noble, right? Right… If he’s noble that means he has to do stuff like that. Allow soldiers to jump at granades that were thrown at him and ride his white steed around the battlefield, sporting his new helmet and rifle.
I have enough trouble figuring out how some people of my social and economic status hold the views they do. That is folks with whom I share common day to day experiences.
I find that I can, at best, speculate wildly about the motivations and thought processes of those whose experiences differ greatly from my own; the very poor and the fabulously weathly. I have to believe that Harry truly believes he is allowed to make such choices and only the most traumatic of experiences would cause him to see otherwise.
I was really hoping this thread was about Prince (the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince), by the way.
Mostly I agree with Mikefule, based on his side of the story. I don’t know the Harry side. There is something to what Ivan said though, intentional or not. In his “noble” role there are things he can do to be a role model, to set an example, or just to stand for what will make the UK or the monarchy look good. Not sure the “quitting” the army is a fit there, but like I said, I haven’t heard his version.
If he wants excitement, maybe we should withdraw our troops from the war that’s going on and just let him fight the war on his with no help whatsoever.
It just made me think that following orders is like a game of chinese whispers.
Anyway if Harry stays away from the war then it is a moral victory to the insurgents, but if he goes it’s gonna take half a battalion just to keep him safe, which is a waste of their time.
Maybe they should just deploy a different group of soldiers, instead of Harrys group.
Yes perhaps the best thing he could have done would have been to forsee this obvious problem and not join the army in the first place. Having said that, if you’re a royal it’s pretty hard to find an occupation, I guess he could do charity work instead.
I see good old Harry was quoted today as saying he’s not afraid to die. Good, because it’s inevitable. Only the timing and the circumstances are unknown. I wonder if he’s afraid to be permanently disfigured, scarred, blinded, or deafened, or afraid to spend the rest of his life knowing he was responsible for the deaths of comrades in the event of him fouling up?
