Real soldiers don’t boast.

[Youwhatnowbiggles]

And there we have the most poignant part of the Prince Harry meltdown thus far…. for me anyway. Absolutely anyone with a relationship to or with someone in the armed forces will know how badly he has properly not just crossed, but happily hurdled lines now. He is a disgrace first and foremost for his attitude to the very difficult and precarious line normal soldiers have to tread. Shame on him.

It questions if the rumours that he was not involved in much action were to protect him. It’s different to saying that you were involved in fatalities (squadron) to a personal tally. A strike on him or his family now whilst the book is trending over the world would be great PR for the Taliban.

He was terrified by his brother shouting at him but he thinks not much of the 25 people he killed lol what was it - Lego men? Either you have empathy or you don't. It is all about him.
I wonder if with that comment he was trying to show strength and the "man" he had become, and it backfired.

Scary stuff. I'm unsure how this could have been published honestly.

I know 5 people really well who have served 20 years plus. Not one of them has ever told me about any gruesome things they did in combat - not one. I wouldn't ask them either out of respect.

That explains a lot, thank you for replying.

Meh I don’t believe him. “25” is such a made up number.

100% this

Hi

Could you tell me how I can also do this please?
TIA

However, Harry did not serve in the US Army, her served in the British Army - he will have known exactly what the culture and behavioural expectations were.

It was a coalition war with 90% of the military being US armed forces and he’s living in the US…..he’s going to have acculturated to the US culture….and is pandering to their 350 million viewers instead of the 50 million in the U.K.

It doesn’t matter really as it’s a fake number and means he probably was never in the thick of anything at all.

Etiquette is the least of his worries. Don't the taliban control Afghanistan these days?

Could he have revealed this simply to get the security he wants the RF to pay for? I know it sounds absurd, but he clearly hasn’t thought any of this through.

He wasn’t boasting though!

He mentioned the Taliban in the context of saying that modern technology did not allow you to forget the number of people you have killed.

From The Telegraph:

”He says that in war soldiers do not usually know how many enemies they have killed, but “in the era of Apaches and laptops” he was able to say “with exactness how many enemy combatants I had killed. And it seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number”.

“So my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me.”

That doesn’t sound boastful or valedictory to me - it sounds quite sombre and reflective - and I do wish people would stop repeating opinions filtered through the Sun and the Daily Mail!

I agree it wasn't boasting. I just think it was terribly ill judged.

It depends whether you're using the app (which I don't) or via browser
I went to:
My Mumsnet
Settings
Selected Talk Settings from the list on the left hand side
Scrolled down and clicked the Manage hidden threads and topics button
Typed royal into the search box and clicked Hide

I didn't think it had worked as it didn't give me any confirmation but - apart from this one which was posted in the wrong topic - I haven't seen any other Harry posts since.
I reported this one and it's now been moved* *😀Thanks Mumsnet!

How in the world did this post turn into a critique of the US military and culture instead of Prince Harry? I have known many, many US military members and combat veterans here in the US-I grew up in a city with a naval base and naval weapons station and an Air Force base and nobody ever talked about their kill rate-I think a US sniper is different in the sense a kill rate is more a sign of their targeting and hitting acumen and ranking vs killing another combatant. I think Harry painted a giant target on his family with indelible, permanent ink and he May damn well regret it

What an absolute prat. He's put a huge fuck of target on him and his family for ever.

Doesn't matter what he thought he was doing. How will he ever sleep another wink.

One of my DD’s has mooted that he’s done this because of the increase in security he’ll need after and that it may push his father into paying for it lest his son end up dead.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether you or I think he’s boasting or not, it’s whether taliban/afghan sympathisers think he was.

it’s not out of the realms of possibility he’s just made his ‘brand’ completely unviable because of security concerns. We’ll have to wait and see what emerges.

It's like he didn't actually serve, DH and I in the military for 20+ years between us, NOBODY talks about it. It's just not done. It's also a massive security issue now, not just for him either.

People who go on tour, don't even admit public ally they're going, let alone that they killed anyone!

Also, technology can allow you to be far more accurate, less collateral. So I don't agree with his assessment, 'laptops and apaches' mean you don't know who you've killed?! The target cycle doesn't allow willy-nilly murder.

Defence chiefs much be furious today.

Sorry I've just re-read it, I'm agreeing with him on the tech point at least!

My US military DH’s reaction was “the only people who disclose a number are fantasists”. I can’t see this disclosure going down well in any circle he would want to ingratiate himself with.

Yes when you actually read more than just a headline grabbing sentence I dont see the problem either.

This is his memoir after all.

100% thick as PS.