Over the past several days, I’ve noticed the press slowly picking up and more breathlessly repeating the story that Prince Harry said that he has killed Taliban in Afghanistan.
Let me see,
He’s serving in his nations military — Check!
He’s in a gunship — Check!
He’s in a war zone — Check!
He’s being shot at — Check!
In my book…
It goes without saying that he’s killed some Taliban. The question shouldn’t have even been asked. It was probably asked by some asinine reporter looking for something sensationalist. Problem is this isn’t sensational it’s a grim reality of war.
People die.
Prince Harry is doing his job, which is to take orders from his commanding officers, and to protect his crew if that means opening up with a 30mm chain gun on a pissant Taliban fuck so be it.
What answer would you expect?
Do you suppose the troops in war zones have been planting posies? That somehow RPG and AK-47 fire magically turns into rainbows and happy fairy sprinkles?
Prince Harry answered the question. Now he’s being criticized for answering the question.
Had he evaded answering the question he’d have been criticized for evasion.
The man was damned either way and like most men backed into a corner by slimy scum bags (in this case liberal reporters) he decided to answer 100% truthfully. After all with the truth, you don’t have to remember what lie you told which person.
I say good for Prince Harry. I’m glad he’s doing his job and not getting much in the way of “Special” treatment. In future, he may be more connected with the common man and will be in a position to suggest or represent the common mans interests back home.
Aside from his mother not being terribly happy about him being in the military, (name a Mom who is happy about her children being in harms way) I personally think that the young prince is a good man.
His mother shows through in all the best ways. In general, I imagine she’d be proud of both her boys.
I guess the article pissed me off because of the fucked up connections that the writer and then the Afghan and Taliban leaders made.
I suppose I can perhaps excuse Hamid Karzai and the Taliban leader Zabihullah Mujahid for not knowing what a PlayStation or Xbox is.
After all they still think fire is the magic of the gods.
You need to have electricity to use a PlayStation. Most of Afghanistan is barely into the stone-age just slightly above flinging their excrement at each other…
Prince Harry making the comparison to his childhood game controls is completely logical.
After all if you make a sophisticated high tech weapon system similar to a familiar game interface then you don’t have to waste a lot of time training your soldiers how to use the weapon. It save time, money, and minimizes practice time.
But that doesn’t mean that the Prince was referring to the war as “Fun”. Unfortunately that’s the spin Harry’s comment is being given.
Hamid Karzai is concerned about troop withdrawals. Others are concerned about the erosion of relations between the troops and locals…
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t this a problem in Afghanistan already?
Don’t we have the locals and our troops stationed in separate areas because of friendly fire incidents?
Isn’t this the place where “Friendlies” walk in to cafeterias and blow themselves up or shoot men they’ve spent months or years training with, working with, and living with?
I’d say that the relations are already well and truly fucked up. I’m all for getting our people the hell out of the place and letting the locals cannibalize each other if they wish.
We have the asshole Taliban guy Zabihullah Mujahid calling the Prince a 
coward for “speaking when he was out of harms way… “
Uh yeah, dumbass. The interview was done while Harry was on duty in your shit hole country. Oh by the way, when was the last time you poked your head out of a cave?
Why the fuck do we even know what you think? I’d suspect that most of us couldn’t give a crap less.
Then there’s the Peacenik Lindsey German of the “Stop the war coalition” asking how the Prince knows the people he killed were Taliban.
Well Lindsey… the Prince probably had a fairly good idea when the people on the ground were shooting at his helicopter.
In my reality someone shooting at me is an enemy… I’m not going to take the time before I shoot back to ask for confirmation of their political or religious affiliation. You Lindsey are perfectly welcome to go talk to the people shooting at you if you’d like.
Hey before you go… let me put this pretty vest on you. Uh no, Lindsey it’s not body armor It’s 30 lbs of C-4 explosive. Here, hold this button down while you’re talking to those very angry people waving the guns at you…
So that Lindsey, has some ability to sleep at night… Let me offer this logic to you.
You’re in a helicopter
You’re flying over Taliban occupied territory
People on the ground are shooting at you (Or flinging poo)
ergo
They are in all likelihood Taliban… in deed if not in actual political/religious affiliation.
Which means… It’s perfectly acceptable to squeeze the trigger on that shiny 30mm chain gun until the people on the ground stop shooting!
It’s completely ridiculous to ask or publish a question asking how the Prince knew they were Taliban.
I’m all for leaving the Afghans and for that matter the whole stinking shithole known as the Middle East squarely in the middle of the stone-age.
Their belief structures are a threat. They are a prime example of religion retarding human development and their civilizations (such as they are) are examples of retrograde development.
Yeah, I have no pity, sympathy, or concern for those people. I’m for complete isolation of the area.
Quarantine it, let the infection of their religion of hate burn itself out.
Call the Middle East the Spanish Influenza of thought processes.
Quarantine the area and wait a 100 years or so for them to quit twitching. Maybe then you nuke ’em from orbit just to make sure…
We don’t have to be nice to our enemies.
Let’s stop deluding ourselves, no matter what we do in the Middle East we will never be liked.
The best we can hope for is that the people there understand death comes on swift wings if you screw with the west.