Just as Prince Harry is settling into Afghanistan, where he will be serving as a helicopter pilot, a threat against him from the Taliban has been made public.
Reuters reports:
“We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location.
“We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him,” Mujahid added, declining to go into detail on what he called the “Harry operations”.
In 2008 Captain Wales (as Harry is known) also served in Afghanistan, but his tour was cut short after a media blackout designed to keep him safe was compromised.
In this case, many are wondering whether Captain Wales, as third in line for the crown, should even be serving in a combat zone in the first place. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made clear that he felt Captain Wales was safe.
“That’s not a matter of concern,” Rasmussen told a news conference in Brussels on Monday. “I mean, we do everything we can to protect all our troops deployed to Afghanistan whatever might be their personal background.”
What do you think of Prince Harry’s service and the threat made against him?
Should he be pulled from service for his own safety, or safety of others? Or is the Secretary-General correct that Captain Wales is just another soldier in a war, and as safe as he can be in combat?
AP Photo
Like any good capitalist country the Brits should be ecstatic that a rep from their most successful welfare case is actually working.
I’m sure the Taliban will try to kill and especially capture him because it sends a message. Sending him to Afghanistan also sends a message. Once the Taliban made the threat, you can’t back down, but they also have risk. Once they say that they’ll do everything they can to kill or capture him, they make themselves look weak if they can’t. After all, we got Bin Laden. Now that you have to send him, you need to protect him to deny the Taliban a PR coupe. That doesn’t mean you can’t use his presence in Afghanistan to our advantage… Read more »
Just a stupid priviledged kid going to war to look cool… Hé wouldn’t have gone as a foot solfier woul hé? No, no! Too dangerous and surely not as cool as an Apache pilot… Only this is not a game.. He puts any solfier who Will step on his helicopter at risk. Please Harry go Jack to Vegas. At least Thérèse hé cant jury anyone!
Frank, He WAS a a foot soldier, a forward observer with the Gurkhas, on his first tour. And since he only takes one other soldier up with him, I am guessing that the weapons guys in his squadron are fighting each other for the honor.
I am pretty surprised they are letting him serve under his real name ..i would think he’s important enough to have a code name maybe ..not that that couldn’t be detected/figured out .. he needs prayer!
I can’t say that I am that fond of the idea of monarchy, or any inherited titles of any kind, but I have to say the Prince Harry is a MAN. That fun stuff that he was doing in Vegas (God Bless America)? He could be doing that all the time! Instead, he is going to be living in a hanger and eating field grub with the rest of the Tommies. The idea that the Taliban are going to kill him before they would kill any man or woman in the iSAF? Laughable. And I am guessing that the only… Read more »