War on Iraq

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 grandsons 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.

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