Harry's Book

Haven't read it, but probably will when it comes out in the UK, as I'd like to read his actual words, rather than the manner in which the gutter press is guaranteed to twist it.

Some are taking issue with Harry's claim to have killed 25 Taliban in Afghanistan, maintaining he had put his fellow combatants at risk by his revelation - what the hell do people think the Army was doing in Afghanistan - having a jolly in the sun? 

There are myriad military memoirs by ex combatants - did they also put their Army chums in peril? Andy McNabb, among others, made a bloody fortune from his SAS exploits, and how the hell did WWI and WWII Aces know they were Aces if they didn't keep a very 'unprofessional' tally? Snipers are supremely confident of their tallies and their reputations depend on them. Here's a story about British troops having kill count competitions in Afghanistan.

Yes, Harry has possibly marginally increased the risk for himself and his immediate family, but not every bugger who fought in Afghanistan. To suggest this is so is utterly ludicrous and grasping at straws in order to justify an attack him.

I spotted a Twitter commentator saying Harry had breached the Geneva Convention. When someone asked what clause, he couldn't answer - the Geneva Convention doesn't prevent combatants killing each other in a battle scenario, if it did, war would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. The arguer then maintained, without a shred of evidence, that there must have been civilians among the dead Taliban.

Objections were made by others concerning Harry being taught to dehumanise those he was sent to kill, not realising that if you're worrying about your enemy's wife and kids, you're not going to make a very good soldier and are likely to get a Taliban bullet in the head first. You must surely take your brain out and imagine your shooting ducks at a shooting gallery in order to cope with it. 

And strategy IS a game of chess. Chess, like war, is the purposeful attempt to gain an advantage over your opponent, regardless of what the Taliban may say in press releases - those buggers don't even allow women to be educated and kill people at the drop of a hat, so their pronouncements are utterly valueless and I don't know why anyone even reports their opinions.

"But we've only heard one side of the story," was another retort. Could you imagine a therapist saying that to a patient and wanting to talk to the abuser? There's nothing stopping the story from 'the other side', except it would be filtered through the PR machine that surrounds the Royal Family, which seems to have a will of its own and over which they have little or no control.

What Harry has done is bared his soul and thus cut out the gutter press middlemen, who are incandescent with rage that they are out of the loop and can't reinterpret his words, although they're busy doing just that with excerpts obviously taken out of context (when you hear the context from more reputable media organisations). One newspaper, if you can call it that, said; "Spare us this," and then went on to publish a 17 page spread on Harry, not sparing a single detail. Such utter hypocrisy!

When all is said and done, the gutter press is doing a sterling job of publicising Harry's book and making him a fortune - they're doing the very thing they don't actually want to, because they can't help themselves - it sells papers.