I wrote this post some weeks months ago, when it first looked as though the newly passed-out-from-Sandhurst Prince Harry was likely to be sent to Iraq. Judging by the number of hits from google on the topic we’re getting and the fact it’s buried in the uncategorised archive, I’m republishing it, as I think that what I said then is just as relevant now.
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The UK media is reporting that party nazi, alleged art ‘A ‘level faker and 3rd in line to the throne Prince Harry, who was recently commissioned as an army officer, is to be posted to Basra, Iraq by next May:
Prince Harry preparing to lead troops in Basra
PRINCE Harry is set to go to one of Iraq’s most dangerous areas next year, it emerged today.
Defence sources disclosed that he will be a troop commander and is likely to patrol the hazardous border with Iran.
The third in line to the throne is to join the Army’s 1st Mechanised Brigade which will be deployed in Basra and the surrounding area in May 2007. The prince has told colleagues that he is determined, like his uncle Prince Andrew in the Falklands, to go out on operations and be treated normally.
He does not wish to be kept out of danger and as a Cornet – the equivalent of a second lieutenant – in the Blues and Royals he will be in charge of 11 men and four light tanks.
The Reconnaissance formation will go on ten-day patrols along the lengthy border with Iran.
Defence chiefs will have to devise plans that will ensure his life and those of his troops is not put in any greater danger because of his identity.
Stupid, but gutsy.
Although I consider myself politically a republican, having just spent time with my own potentially army-age sons (who are US citizens and thus potentially liable for any future draft) I can’t help but empathise with 2nd Lt. Wales’ family, as I can as with any other parent or relative whose child is in a war zone, however voluntarily they went there. Once they’re adults, they make their own decisions, no matter how painful it may be : all family can do is wait, watch and worry.
Despite their unwarranted wealth and position the royal family are still human beings and by all accounts the Queen is as fond of her grandsons as any other proud grandmother, which must make Harry’s posting all the more excruciating. Given Her Maj’s exalted position, imagine how tempting it must be to use her power as Commander in Chief to prevent her grandson from being put in direct physical danger. However voluntarily the child undertakes danger no parent ot grandparent would think twice. If you could, with a stroke of a pen, take your offspring out of the path of a bomb or a bullet or a kidnapping, wouldn’t you do it and to hell with any consequences?
But the Queen hasn’t yet and I have to wonder why: is it an attempt at expiation? Seeing the criminally tragic results of the invasion of Iraq on television daily, does she feel guilt? Does she look back on those pre-2003 weekly audiences with Blair and wish she had stopped him? Does she feel terrible for not having done enough to prevent her government from perpetrating this illegal and immoral war – and is she willing to sacrifice a member of her own family to atone for that?
If that’s what’s happening (and I do admit it’s pure speculation on my part ) then despite my deeply-held anti-monarchical views, I’d have to admire the woman. It would mean that she’s aware that for her family’s position she has to pay a price, for all her immense power and wealth; one that’s paid in actual blood. Unlike some other heads of state ( say, President of the United States, to use a serendipitous example), to this monarch at least being Queen appears to mean voluntarily putting your family’s privileged lives on the line for what’s done in your name.
I ‘d love to be a fly on the wall at the next Blair/Queen weekly audience. – will the newly tangoed and relaxed Blair feel any shame at all that not one of his own enlistment-age family – currently living it up on a freebie with Dad at a Bee Gee’s mansion in South Florida – is volunteering to join up?
I think we know the answer to that question.
Which is the soldier and which the overprivileged oik? You choose.
Tony Blair finally made his century, then. He must be so proud.
31 January 2006 11:00
The 100th British soldier to die in Iraq is a Scot. The latest incident came in Um Quasr this morning. Just yesterday another Scot was killed when his patrol came under attack in the south of the country.
At about half past six UK time this morning an explosion took place in Um Quasr near Basra. One soldier, a Scot was killed in the incident. Three others were injured, one of them seriously. The soldiers’ names and regiment will not be released until next of kin have been informed.
This takes to 100 the number of UK troops to die on operations in Iraq since the start of hostilities almost exactly three years ago
Yet another family has lost a child for a lie: isn’t it time the Blairs made an equal sacrifice, since this is a cause Tony truly believes in? Dulce est decorum est and all that should be graven on his admittedly dicky heart, public schoolboy that he is.
Time to draft the Blair children, starting with Euan.
Tony and Cherie have four children. The eldest, Euan, born in 1984, has proved a bit of a yob, ending up in court for being “drunk and incapable” – sounds ideal for the Army – this incident notwithstanding, he’s used Daddy’s contacts very well indeed :
Educated at The London Oratory School in West London, Blair graduated with a BA in Ancient History from Bristol University in 2005. It has been reported that after graduation Blair will spend three months as an unpaid intern with Republican David Dreier and Republican Party staff on the Rules Committee of the United States House of Representatives. He will then cross the aisle and work for three months in the office of Democrat Jane Harman (a Blue Dog Democrat).
Second son Nicky was born in 1986:
Nicholas Blair (born January 6, 1985) is the second son of British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. As of 2005 he is a second-year Modern History student at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. He is Secretary of Oxford University Labour Club.
Get that boy into OTC, ASAP.
Blair daughter Kathryn was born in 1988 – perfect cannon-fodder age, and as there’s no front line in Iraq I’m sure she’d see some combat and wqouldn’t be bored
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Little Leo can be kept busy selling fluffy toys to pay for his siblings’ equipment, since they won’t get anything decent from the MOD.
Now I wouldn’t usually agree with attacking a politician through their children, but as Blair is letting voter’s children be killed on a regular basis for a lie, and if even the overprivileged Windsors can send a child to war, why can’t Blair, who started the bloody war in the first place?
Make Tony Blair pay for his own mistakes – why should others have had to?
Enlist The Blair Children Now!
UPDATE: King Robert Speaks finds Spinwatch, which has this from Private Eye, which makes it that much more imperative to enlist the little fucker:
February 6, 2006, Issue 1150
“WHAT a surprise that Tony Blair?s son Euan has found a work experience placement with the City spin doctors, Finsbury. Roland Rudd, the Finsbury founder and friend of Peter Mandelson, has been cosying up to “new” Labour for many years. In 2001 Finsbury?s party guests also included the present Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and Education Ministers (and peer) Andrew Adonis, as well as the then Labour party boss, also since ennobled, Lord Triesman.
Finsbury previously hired the former private secretary of the Dear Leader?s close pal, the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer. Such contacts and support for Labour events at conference time perhaps helped merit the 2002 contract to advise then Transport Secretary Stephen “Liar” Byers over the Railtrack collapse.
So look out for the pay-off… most likely to come for such a selfless act as explaining to Blair the Younger the dark arts of being paid to lie… “
