h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Personally I think they should stick some fluffy bunny ears on him and make him a regimental mascot. It couldn't make his credibility any worse. He is already a sick joke. Frontline service in Iraq is too dangerous. No shit, Sherlock! Not too dangerous for the proles, though, eh? After the debacle of the 15 navy hostages, yet another propaganda coup for the other lot. Who is in charge of this war?

SoRB

I use the term "other lot", because it seems enough people have conjoined the words "rag" and "head" to cause it to be added to the list of filtered words. Intriguing.

SoRB

Oh dear, so the the fact that the conjoining of the two words concerned is unnecessarily racist to a large number of UK citizens didn't occur to you then?

Send him anyway. Should be good for a laugh.

It's just the relatively recent addition of it to the list of naughty words (and the continuing non-presence on that list of the word "shit") that intrigued.

I don't imagine Harry will go to Iraq. Spending all the money training him up, blowing hard about "no special treatment", then keeping him home away from the nasty brown men with bombs is a bad enough propaganda cockup, but if the Sunni/Shia/Iraqi/Iranian/Al Qaeda/Ali Baba and his forty thieves/who gives a crap as long as its only each other they're blowing up lot actually managed to kill him, can you imagine the media circus? Can you imagine the crowds dancing in the streets of Baghdad?

SoRB

But back to the point - I think Harry should do his bit for Gran and country, admit he's only a toy soldier and spend his days marchin up and down the squayar outside granny's house like a good little tourist trap. Besides, that way at the end of the day it's only a ten quid cab ride to Spearmint Rhino. Result.

SoRB

It's kind of unfair on Harry that he'll be a target to every insurgent going just because of who his parents are. It's even more unfair to the poor sods who serve under him to be singled out for attack (well, more than they would otherwise). It would be lunacy to send him there, and the MOD should have never even thought about letting him go.

Agreed Pedro

It isn't the latest decision that is wrong, it is the first one, that suggested he could go at all.

It would have been much brighter to have put him in the Navy in the first place, perhaps in a submarine - out of site and sound of scruffily dressed brown men.

Novo

I think it's ridiculous to let him join up & train but not fully participate.

His life is no more precious than that of any other soldier and for that reason he should go.
However, if the powers that be have intelligence that leads them to believe that his associates really would be at greater risk, then he shouldn't.

No easy, fully acceptable solution.

"No easy, fully acceptable solution."

Of course there is. Stop allowing the Royal Family to pretend to be members of the armed forces.

Prince Andrew went to the Falklands, a proper shooty war against a proper army and everything. He specifically said in an interview later that if he hadn't gone, his position as a member of the navy would have been untenable.

Unfortunately for Harry, that's exactly the position he's in now. He's either in the army properly, or he's pretending to be. And if he's pretending to be, his position is untenable. It's time to admit that in this media-obsessed age, the royals simply cannot any longer play at soldiers, because if they do, they may have to actually work as soldiers, and we all know that just ain't gonna happen. Whoever permitted Harry to join a unit with potential frontline exposure needs sacking.

SoRB

Here's what the onion has to say about it:

"Queen Elizabeth did well as a machine-gunner during World War II, so I wouldn't expect any less of her grandson."

"Man, Iraqi phone lines are going to be inundated with prank callers asking if they have Prince Harry in a tank."

"Great. Another kid with maternal-abandonment issues and a gun."


http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/prince_harry_going_to_iraq

Well, at least Prince William is actually getting something done:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/prince_william_fells_prince_willem

That'll probably help SoRB win his bet.

He should resign his commission and it no other royal should join the Armed Forces...that's what us plebs are for.

Catch 22 situation: he should go as that's his job but if he goes everyone around him will be in danger and looking for transfer to other units.

The other problem here is that it isn't a proper war...it's not a war it is an occupation. Where you do not know where the enemey are.

The thing about the Falklands was we knew where the enemy was.

Also, in the Falklands, the restrictions on reporting were more severe - only approved British journalists with the task force, Brian Hanrahan at no point announcing "Oo, I've just seen Prince Andrew take off and he's heading southwest..."

And I can't imagine the Argentinians would have thought specifically targetting him would be a good idea anyway.

Yeah, but even then journalists were doing their best. Telling the Argentinians that the Paras were on their way to attack Goose Green, for instance. Reporting the bombs that didn't explode on contact with the British ships, so the Argentinians knew to re-set their fuses. That one led directly to the bombs that hit Sir Galahad & Sir Tristan going off perfectly.

In this case with Iraq though, the journalists didn't have to dig too hard to find out where he was going to be based. If they could find out, so could the rag... glorious freedom fighters.

Well, quite - if they tried to impose restrictions on the media then and it still didn't work, what would it be like now? The tabloids would be giving away free posters of Iraq with big red arrows pointing to Harry's likeliest locations.

<>

Oooh. Unnecessarily cruel and harsh. I've heard what those uncouth pongoes do to their mascots.

<>

Would that be with or without the Nazi uniform?

i think happy should go to blackpool for the summer hoildays
because hes not going to iraq

i think happy should go to blackpool for the summer hoildays
because hes not going to iraq and at lease he can walk in the sand there

The news says the possibility of a secret placement abroad. So, erm, why was this one so public? Maybe he should just dye his hair and grow a beard? Perhaps we could get some Americans to pay for exclusive access to the story and reinvest the money in better army equipment, thus saving more lives overall?

Its not necessarily his fault, so I'd say either they stick him into active service somewhere sharpish or give him an honourable discharge.