“This was my attempt to reduce suicides of military/vets - explains PH around the killing number

[Ticketyboots]

….as he has worked with vets for 2 decades so sharing this info (killing number) was not boastful and means no shame to discuss it - but his intention was to reduce the number of suicides.

This what he said on The Late Show to counter the recent furores about the Taliban piece. I felt that was an uncomfortable reach for me to believe.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=E6l0ObY2XVM&bpctr=1673424179

This is exactly the problem..the world is a different place now than it was 10 years ago. Back then they just got Osama Bin Laden, the war was ongoing, it was shortly after the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 and terrorism was a huge issue all across the globe. He "did his bit" in the fight against terror and it was well-received back then. The press didn't print body counts either.

Why does he think bringing it up in 2022 would be a good idea? The dust from Afghanistan has finally settled and terror attacks aren't really on top of the list of fears anymore. There's cost of living, covid, climate change and the Ukraine war. The younger generation are also progressively more inclusive and society is becoming more accommodating of people's differences. The migrant crisis of 2015-2017 also meant a huge number of Afghanis, Syrians etc have settled across Europe and are now leading normal lives in countries that would have been their "enemies" back in the days.

People are currently exposed to the horrors of a fairly senseless war in the Ukraine that has driven even more refugees across the globe and impacted the energy section in a way that affects everyone for the worse. Harry suddenly talking about killing 25 people in war from 10 years ago is so utterly tone-deaf it's mind-boggling.

As always he blames the media for misinterpreting his story when in fact many, many service men, vets and senior military officers have condemned his comments.

He must have always been like this but being in the protection of the RF he could be filtered, but now he just won't shut up !

Yes they have.

I don’t think he was boasting either in the book except.

But I am shocked that he is adding in this new retrospective reason of suicide prevention. It’s v insensitive - especially to military / vets where suicide is a disproportionate issue.

Harry wants the US to fawn over him as a veteran, all the 'Thank you for your service' stuff, and he's trying to carve himself out out a niche to do veteran work in America. So by giving a tally, he thinks he'll come across as a proper soldier and make himself more employable. What he now has is a security crisis.

I read that whole longer piece about his time in Afghanistan courtesy of Yahoo news. I don't see that anything has been taken out of context. I cant recall seeing the press say he was boasting, they were just incredulous that he was unaware enough to have put it in his book.
He is so quick to blame the press or others, he can't see that he is making huge mistakes too.
Anyone else would be desperate to stop this Spare train and get off now, but he just seems desperate to argue about every bit of negative comment he is getting.
I think he is on a car crash trajectory here and I'm beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable about watching it. The royal family must be feeling so bad for him; they are right not to respond publicly but how can they now approach him privately with the threat of Netflix in the background?

Ah that makes sense that this is what his angle is. Thank you for your service is ingrained in American culture and he wants to be part of that,

Context is everything.

The context of this thread is his recent claims (not noted in the book from the 2 pages on the Taliban number) about his “whole goal” was to reduce number of suicides amongst vets / military.

Are you able to comment on this new development in this context?

Specifically his use of suicide prevention as his “whole goal”, reason, excuse, justification, defence to include the number?

Because I don’t believe him.

I would add that, while Harry was completing Spare last summer, at the same time, on the East Coast, Salman Rushdie was being stabbed for supposed crimes against Islam from 35 years ago. And all he did was write a literary novel, he didn't actually kill anyone. Thinking writing this would not result in a media frenzy and an outraged response from the Taliban is just beyond naive, and his editor/publisher should have cautioned him to use more circumspect language. However much you might hate your enemy, referring to someone else's dead loved one as a chess piece is repulsive.

His ability to twist, turn and paint himself as the good guy whilst taking no responsibility for anything is quite skilled, though. He's clearly had a lot of practice.

Yes this could be true - there are “any veterans in the house tonight” shoutouts to the audience … lots of whooping etc.

Harry in a room with a few armed Taliban soldiers….”look, I know I said I killed 25 of your mates, but I wasn’t boasting…..I was just saying”.

Your understatement is to be applauded!

There's barely a positive comment about him in that community

I'll come back and eat humble pie if I find anyone who thinks there is benefit to veterans as described in this latest claim

He's already made himself a target. He'll live the rest of his life with bright flashing lights on his back now.

Oh, come off it, Harold. Your words are out there. If you don't know that they will be interpreted, and that really there is no interpretation other than "I killed 25 Taliban", then you really are unbelievably thick.

it was reported in the press 10yrs ago when he was described as being a hero

Yes that report - which included neither kill numbers nor any mention of chess pieces did indeed get a totally different reception.

I think the reason why there is a difference is blindingly obvious.

It’s not just that there is no benefit to vets / military from his latest claim (about his “whole goal”) - I would imagine it could go as far as being deeply offensive to families of vets / military who have as individuals and a community suffered a disproportionate level of suicide.

What an arse. He is so desperate to blame everything on “the British press” that he is now trying to blame them for reporting verbatim his own words. Does he not realise, when he says he wasn’t boasting etc, that that is irrelevant because of course the press /people in general/ the Taliban will interpret them as they see fit. If you don’t want a misunderstanding, don’t fucking write it in a book 🙄

The sheer arrogance of it is mind-blowing. The idea that someone potentially suicidal is even reading the bloody book is absurd, let alone that they read that passage and think 'OK then, maybe I won't commit suicide after all because good old Harry killed people as well".

He’s so fucking tone deaf.

My DH was in Afghanistan and says it would be impossible to know how many people you killed but also it’s extremely inappropriate and unprofessional to discuss it publicly, ever.

What is Harry playing at.

It’s also argue it’s as much of a trigger as prevention, I’d argue more so

You don’t get to decide the context of a thread, it’s a conversation.

When bits of Harry’s book was released last week, the tabloids and news outlets released a couple of sentences and accused him of boasting about killing 25 Taliban. They took this comment out of context. I watched 3 interviews on Sky News with senior military figures on Friday night (one of whom I know very well who served in Afghanistan with Harry) who all said, based on that comment he shouldn’t have said “his number”, which I agree with.

I don’t know the motive behind Harry saying this and neither does anyone else. What I do know is someone needs to do something about reducing military and veteran suicide because right now no one is. It’s took years and years of petitions and writing to MPs and the Govt to actually get them to recognise Veterans suicide separately, so they could see how bad it is.

I, also, never, ever, want to receive another telephone call from my son telling me that he’s had to cut his friend and colleague, who was hanging, down either. The lack of support he received from the military after that was abysmal.

Prince Harry is often ill judged in his comments and does sometimes let his mouth run, but he’s done a lot of work for veterans and those serving, with both physical and mental health problems. I wish there were more people who’d do the same, tbh.

If you read the extract as it’s written he explains why he knows it was 25. Sounded plausible to me in context the whole chapter.

Perhaps he’s been ill-advised, perhaps it will open up a debate. I don’t have many strong feelings on it. I don’t really see why there’s a code of silence around this in the first place. Maybe it’s from respect, but maybe it’s from shame, which seems to be what Harry’s saying he’s trying to shine a light on when he’s talking about veterans feeling suicidal.

We lived in the US and they really put their veterans on a pedestal. DH was in the British Army and long after he left we lived in the US for a while - he stopped telling people when they asked about his employment history because the fawning and ‘wow you’re a hero’ stuff was pissing him off. He doesn’t see himself as a hero, he did tours of Iraq and very much sees himself as being complicit in an illegal and unjust war to the point he’s had to had therapy to deal with the crushing guiltZ but that overprivileged nobhead comes along thinking his special words ca make people feel better?! What a dick. If you care about veterans Harry, now you can express a political opinion, how about campaigning to make politicans answerable for their actions in the unnecessary about of veteran deaths in the 00’s.

This part of the book was a mistake. If he wanted to address ptsd, “war is stupid”, his time in the Armed Forces etc etc this should have been in a completely separate book, not shoe-horned into Spare.

Clearly his people have told him this segment ain’t going down well, so as usual there is the weaselling out of responsibility.

His backpedaling is astonishing, he did the same with colour of his children /racist remark, blamed it on the media taking it out of context .
He's insulting our intelligence.