Double amputee war hero who inspired Prince Harry to start Invictus 'disagrees' with Duke's claim British press did not cover stories of wounded in Afghanistan as Colonel says his popularity is dwindling with veterans

[MamoruHisaishi]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12466191/Afghanistan-war-hero-prince-harry-british-soldiers.html

Harry's narrative in this series is very much aimed at US audiences whose media absolutely ignored the dead/injured from Iraq/Afghanistan (due to political reasons).

The UK media did cover it (maybe not as much as some would have liked), but The Sun and a couple of other tabloids did do a lot of stories. And a huge amount of campaigning alongside Help for Heroes and raised quite a bit of money.

So Harry is partly correct in what he says, but it will ring true mainly for US audiences. He also didn't correctly state it was Australian & US media only that leaked he was deployed overseas, UK media stuck to the agreement. The issue is US audiences will just assume he's exclusively meaning UK press. He's currently suing UK tabloids so they are going to pull him up on inaccuracies.

I would have liked a bit less focus on Harry speechifying as it interrupted the flow of the veterans stories at times (IMO), but it's a hard balance to strike, as without Harry there wouldn't be the same level of interest. Overall I think NF got it right.

As to the point of the OP and the story posted - it's true the focus of the story should be the veterans, any "salvaging" of Harry's reputation is entirely secondary. People have entrenched views now though, the doc will help as it reminds audiences of the "old" Harry that was the most popular Royal, but won't overall change things IMO.

Invictus is a hugely worthwhile cause, and anything that strengthens it is good.

It’s really interesting to see whose comments the press choose to report. I saw a lot of tweets yesterday on this topic, and they were overwhelmingly full of praise and admiration for Harry’s work.

People need more critical thinking skills. The DM will have sought out someone who shares their hatred for him, and if you pay people enough, they will say anything.

right? Its pathetic, fucking nasty to do with the games on. The daily fail is a cesspit.

For balance:

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/prince-harry-like-brother-says-invictus-games-athlete-gabriel-george-1719046

Another veteran who is not sick of Harry: Ukrainian paramedic and vet, Yuliia ‘Taira’ Paievska thanks Harry for spreading the word- she was held hostage during last years games but will be participating this year:

https://www.tatler.com/article/prince-harry-captured-ukrainian-paramedic-invictus-games

Another veteran, Steve James, thanks Harry for saving his life... once again, people have used a single tabloid headline to create a narrative he is 'losing popularity with veterans' when that is clearly not the case:

https://www.forces.net/royals/prince-harry/invictus-athlete-thanks-prince-harry-saving-my-life

This.

There will be people in the armed forces (serving, retired and injured) who think he is great and there will be those that think, after his behaviour over the last few years, that actually he is 'not all that' and come to the conclusion he is not the person they thought he was. No different to on here.

I actually think Colonel Richard Kemp makes a fair point when he says, paraphrasing, the men and women of the U.K. forces served under the Queen and were proud to do so and Harry's behaviour and comments made publicly since then have been jarring.

His constant contradictions, his obsession with the U.K. media, his sniping and constant referring back to the past whilst encouraging others to look forward and see a positive and enriching future life for themselves and their families is also jarring.

I wish him continued success with Invictus but cut out the bloomin woe is me and take a leaf out of these guys & gals books. They would appear to be a lot more dignified in dealing with their lot in life.

but you wouldn't hear about it, if it wasn't for threads like this.
I can manage not to and I don't even dislike him. most people I assume like you don't seek it out.

I have every right to post any news about Harry, even if it’s negative. Some of you have a pro Harry bias, willingly choosing to ignore his boorish and racist behaviour, by saying it's all to do with his mental health and therefore he should be excused for it. No thanks. Harry has been proven to have lied many times, even claiming that he never got support after his Afghan tour in this recent documentary, even though he has stated in a previous interview that his own brother was the one who supported him in getting therapy. I will be reporting people here who choose to attack me and derailing this thread.

This is what I posted on another thread yesterday:

The period of military personnel returning from Afghanistan (and Iraq) was a time when - for much of the public and across the tabloids - there was a great deal of support which led to action - both large (the setting up of Help4Heroes, (originally formed for capital projects to benefit veterans of those two conflicts specifically) and Combat Stress (plus the NHS formation of specific units for veterans) - and small (such as the pillorying of those who objected to the creation of a hostel for families visiting Headley Court)

If you were involved in those (then) new initiatives, you know you were doing, and perhaps are still doing, is the right things - as were all the major Service charities who aided those veterans, plus all the ones from other conflicts. It's not right to have the actual support systems left out of the picture

are people allowed to disagree with you? good idea to report. mn hq need to keep an eye on this topic and how anyone who doesn't agree with the op is shut down.

Can you be more specific? Who on this board has said racism should be excused because of mental illness?

You definitely should report personal attacks, but there haven't been any. Someone disagreeing with you, even strongly, isn't a personal attack.

We are allowed to disagree. This thread is about Harry and Invictus. We are allowed to talk about Invictus as it's in your thread title.

Threatening people with 'I will report you' I'm afraid goes against the nature of a forum and is rather unpleasant to be honest.

I wish to add here... this is not an attack on you. It is an opinion on a thread.

I think threatening to report posters is against T & C's so I wouldn't;t advise doing it. Just report it and let MNHQ deal with it.

I went to read the source material on Twitter - Ben McBean’s thought process is actually more nuanced than reported in the article. Many people on these threads and he is saying that he felt that the media did report on physical injury in veterans but that perhaps the public did not really care as he says -

”I was injured in 2008. I knew about injuries from 2007. It’s always been covered. Weather people gave a shit or not was the difference”

He later on acknowledges that nobody acknowledges mental health

”Nobody spoke about mental health back then. Including troops. Which is part of the problem. I’d never heard of ptsd in 2008.”

And it becomes apparent that his approach is the pull yourself together school of thought

”Your right. But it’s not the media’s job to support us in that way. Once your a civilian your basically on your Todd. It’s your job to look after yourself and for some people it’s difficult. We can go way back from 2005”

“That’s why we end up cracking on alone.”

So as you can see - this is not at all dissimilar to what Harry is actually saying and trying to help veterans with seeking help. Ben seems to have had a nasty bout with a skin infection so we can only wish him the best.

Yes, and @skullbabe Ben has spoken about Harrys book and his thoughts on that and him and invictus in January, similar sort of thing said then and I think some time ago too.

Thanks Skullbabe for your post. I saw Ben’s Twitter feed hours ago and he was defending Harry from someone who tweeted something unfair about Harry.

Well done for reporting them @MamoruHisaishi. I’ve seen you getting piled on in another thread by the usual suspects for daring to post an opinion they disagree with.
Also thread policing directed at you demanding that you stop posting your views when you have done nothing to breach guidelines. It does come over as bullying and you are right to call it out.

I’ve been thinking about the Vets followed in Invictus documentary on and off all day. (It’s evening where I am). Gabe said he was concerned with how he was going to manage his pain in 20years time when it won’t be possible to keep moving all the time in order to divert his mind from his pain. I felt worried for him. So it’s good to read he’s making moves to get into coaching, Hopefully this will serve to help him divert his brain from pain.

20 years is long time in medical advances, so hopefully they will have found a way to cure the pain in that time, anyway.

That scene at the end when Harry and Gabe and other Vets went scuba diving at night was spectacular. Very beautiful, and that huge Sting ray (manta ray?) was amazing.

I've certainly not been posting in the royal topic anymore!

I’m sorry you feel like that @MamoruHisaishi
Best not to engage. You have every right to continue posting.

no, it’s not threatening when someone directly criticised me because I posted a news article about Harry that’s not flattering to him. Or is it only okay for you and people who share your views to report others for not sharing your views or ‘derailing’ a thread?

The reason McBean would have known about injuries from 2007 is because it was all over the press at that time. There was huge supportive coverage, and Help4Heroes was founded in 2007. Combat Stress charity is considerably older, but changed profile enormously in the late 00s, in the run up to the 2010 report "Fighting Fit"

What is however routinely overlooked - then and now - and is well laid out in the reports by the King's Fund is the abuse of alcohol. Alcoholism affects far more veterans than other MH issues, but never seems to get attention.

So veteran support needs to continue to evolve. The Games are of course a Good Thing, but they're icing, not the cake.