Larvatus Prodeo

Poor Prince Harry has been withdrawn from Afghanistan. New Idea has been flooded with angry website messages complaining that by breaking the embargo, they put Harry and other British troops in danger. What nonsense. Firstly, the troops are in danger there anyway - two critically injured soldiers were flown home on the same flight as Harry (who gave them that all-purpose accolade of “heroes”. Funny how civilians - especially women and children - who are blown up in these wars aren’t automatically “heroes”.)

Secondly, the anglo media, even the non-tabloid wing, eg. The Guardian, already had their Harry-combat stories on ice, waiting for the embargo to be broken or come to an end. They’d done a deal with the British Ministry of Defence, who’d flown journalists in to film and interview Harry weeks ago. If they were really concerned that his presence not be known about, why did they let him speak to the media (in fact, organise for him to speak to the media), revealing his approximate location and his role? They could have let him fight there in secret, only putting out a press release after he’d returned home. No, they wanted the publicity, both for the military and for the monarchy. They engineered the PR and then discovered that they can’t control the media, especially in the Internet age.

But they’ve done a pretty good job of setting the terms of reference, so that Harry is lauded as a hero and seen as admirable because he wants to be in the war (any war will do, really), the media are seen as spoilsports, the royals continue to be seen as somehow more valuable human beings than anyone else and virtually no discussion is had about what the army is actually doing in Afghanistan.