Is this the reason why Harry talked about Afghanistan, 25 Taliban dead?

[Abigail69]

Why did he say this, surely he knew he'd make himself a bigger target.

So, in your opinion, what was the reason behind this?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11604941/Harry-painted-target-comments-killing-25-Taliban-ex-Army-colonel-says.html

@SnottyLottie Harry is a complete imbecile any one who has been in the forces knew this would be inflammatory and put every one endanger especially our troops and himself and the RF. There is a specific reason Military personnel don't brag and flaunt this type of information as well as being dam right disrespectful.

No matter what side of the war you are fighting on, these are real people with families and its bad show and disrespect to flaunt the fact they are now deceased after they have been killed in combat. Harry is an animal and still thinks he lives in a secure little box where he is protected from the outside world.

He sat in his helicopter firing rounds and missiles at people on the ground who had no chance against him, then had the ghastly gaul to go back to base and rewatch all the footage to count up his kills, he's a pathetic individual.

He has put his own life and those of his young family and the royal family at increased risk.
All for money and the thrill of revenge on his first born brother.

This book would have been scrutinised by lawyers acting on behalf of Harry to ensure he would be safe from a legal perspective. I cannot believe that this was not pointed out to him as being unwise despite no legal perspective. I honestly think this was to prove he was a real solider as opposed to the rumours of him being highly protected. Unless it changed since I was in the military you use your weapons inline with rules of engagement and the idea of chess pieces must be his personal way of coping

@rumship then had the ghastly gaul to go back to base and rewatch all the footage to count up his kills,

I agree with a lot your post but I'm not sure about that bit.

The Intelligence people will have wanted to see any recordings as part of the debrief and [ I speculate] as part of any face to face debriefing. As a result he may have had no option but to rewatch the engagements at least once and if so he will have had an idea of the number of casualties.

If OTOH he was then heading off to his bunk with a personal copy to watch on replay, perhaps multiple times, then that would be more worrying.

Harry has absolutely no one to blame for this but him. He's put his family and the RF at risk. I'm not surprised they've responded.

This. It's really serious, and such a dangerous thing to start discussing in a book, what the fuck was he thinking?

He has probably increased his invoice for his and Meghan's and his family's security bill by a factor of 10. Put simply he and his wife cannot be allowed to attend the Coronation, the additional costs to the UK taxpayer are simply unacceptable. His lack of discretion has put the lives of other people at risk and made the RF a legitimate target to supporters of the Taliban.
It is insight that he treats humans like 'chess' pieces; it might be necessary to kill in war but to dehumanise the target shows an attitude closer to the Das Reich division than the British Army.
When he applied to join the British Army Harry will have been required to complete a detailed questionnaire about his drug use. Either he lied or someone passed a blind eye over it. There is no way that anyone who thinks pedestal bins are speaking to him or someone who believes that drugs help him see the 'truth' should be anywhere near a lethal weapon.
RMP are absolutely ruthless in their treatment of squaddies who take drugs why are they not investigating Harry?
As to why he did it I expect it was because he wanted to shine in the light of military kudos and a macho pose; any male who describes himself as a stallion when he is a spotty teenager clearly has 'smalldick syndrome'.

Back in Battle of Britain Spitfire days kills were emblazoned on the side of the planes proudly as a badge of competence and victorius triumph. That said doesn't feel at all wise to trumpet it from the hills in the way that he has.

That was 82 years ago though, modern warfare, intelligence and security concerns are probably somewhat different now.

This is really kicking off IE Taliban going on tv etc. It's only a matter of time before you get videos from nutters etc.

This is clearly self-inflicted and I hope us the taxpayers don't have to foot the bill for extra security.

I still can't imagine that Harry of all people that bleat about the "security" of his "family" could not envisage the fallout.

Could it be that it's a mistake, comments taken out of context/misquoted or something that should have not been published accidentally published?

I honestly can't see Harry wanting stuff like this published

Soldier on R4 at the moment defending PH's chess piece comments. Apparently it's different if you're an Apache pilot as your targets are a long way away. Unlike foot soldiers. And Harry's had a "hard life."

Re chess board, personally, I get that but it's the foolishness of putting himself and his family and possibly other armed personnel at greater risk by winding up those that don't need a lot of winding up.

I suspect he thought he'd get a lot of support from the UK & US people by giving us that information. Not sure he's bright enough for anything else. I think he's so blinkered to how he's coming across he can't see further than his nose. I don't even think it's to do with money anymore, it's like he feels he needs to get it all out, not realising how much damage and danger he's putting his family in.

This to date has got to be his most stupid revelation. Not because of the content, but the danger he's put himself and his family in

I think he has low levels of intelligence. What strikes me though is Meghan will have read it was published, so she also must be thick, as any semi intelligent person knows that he has caused them all a major security risk . I thought she was quite intelligent. I suspect she is not

He's either completely thick or just doesn't care if his words lead to repercussions. The rest of the army doesn't have millions for private security.

Any blood spilled over this is on his hands.

I watched a documentary about the US drone pilots that have killed remotely hundreds of targets from secure bases deep in the US. Many have not seen close up action in theatre but were deeply traumatised about what they had seen and done and occasionally even made mistakes from authorised military targets. It should come as no surprise that Harry is probably deeply troubled by this,the early death of his mother,the unfathomable royal upbringing in ways that none of us can imagine or would want to imagine. He needs help not the baying of the lynch mob that desires revenge for daring to question the legitimacy of the Crown as he sees it.

Agree, I suspect they both thought that. That he was portraying himself as a war hero. When In fact everyone is disgusted by the boasting and the way he referred to the people he apparently killed as chess pieces.

they couldn’t even put themselves in the afghans shoes, and if one of them had said they had personally killed 25 men and didn’t think of them as humans. The outcry would be huge.

the multiple statements the afghans have angrily released today basically show they think he is an idiot though, with dismay at his aapparent disregard for human life

I think he’s out massive pressure on his father to fund security.

The tax payer here is never going to pay it again, but this has put Charles in the position of knowing that his son is now a bigger than ever target - both because of his stupidity in saying this and the fact he’s now the son of the King, rather than just a grandchild - and having to decide if he sticks to principle and letting them fund themselves or paying for security out of fear he’d have to live with a “what if…” if anything happens.

The more I think about it, the harder it is to digest that a man of his calibre along with his people that are very close to him, how on earth did they allow this to happen?

It would have been so easy just to say when asked how many Taliban do you think you killed in the war - simple answer, sorry, I don't want to talk about that.

I've never met, seen or heard a serving or ex armed forces personnel talk about how many they have killed, never.

I hope this doesn't lead to terrorist attacks in the UK. It's dreadful and unbelievable that he's made these comments.
even if there's something lost in translation it won't matter. By the time the actual book is released in English the powers that are behind terrorist attacks will have already made their minds up about what to believe.

@MandyMotherOfBrian

That was 82 years ago though, modern warfare, intelligence and security concerns are probably somewhat different now.

Agreed, different conflict, different threat, not sure asymmetric warfare had been invented.

That said I'm not sure why the outrage right now over the issue of what he did - it was public knowledge he'd served in that theatre on Apaches so questions along the lines of "did he kill people doing that job" is asking for a "does a bear......." style of reply.

Of course there is this already this in the public domain:

www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jan/21/prince-harry-afghanistan

I'm guessing even some in the Taliban were aware of this previous record and he may have been on their list of peoples of interest since 2013, if such a list existed.

The bigger question is why does he need to bring the issue back into the public domain at full volume, in detail right now....only he can answer that.

If he needs help then he should seek it out. Unlike so many others, he won't have to be put on a months long waiting list. Much better than revealing this sort of stuff to the world, surely. But if he chose to put this information out there, you can't expect people not to react.

And Harry doesn't question 'the legitimacy of the Crown'. He said specifically that he believes in the monarchy. He's just in a lifelong strop because he will never lead said monarchy. I do find the near hero status bestowed on him by some republicans to be one of the more bemusing aspects of this sorry saga.

I really feel for King Charles as he will now feel he has to pay for their security. Nobody could have it on their conscious if anything was to happen to the innocent kids. I really hope this was not a shake down plan, and it does reflect stupidity. When the stakes are this high …

It's pretty desperate when even the bloody Taliban respond swiftly to your comments but your family carry on completely ignoring you.

I think it will make primarily harry and his immediate family a target, and potentially from a breakaway cell. The second target will be the rest of the royal family.

security services will be looking at it now I guess, listening to chatter and trying to work out if a threat is being planned by the Taliban or a Taliban supporter on the royals.

all it takes is a lone wolf. One person to read it, take offence and take action. It’s just an awful situation.