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Prince Harry Comes home

DRB

unemployed bum
Oct 24, 2002
15,242
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Watchin' you. Writing it all down.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23403696/
British Chief of the Defense Staff Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup confirmed Friday that the army will pull Prince Harry out of Afghanistan after news of his deployment there was leaked.

Harry, third in line to the British throne, has been serving on the front line with an army unit in Helmand, one of Afghanistan's most lawless and barren provinces since mid-December.
Harry, 23, was deployed to fight against the Taliban in the southern Afghan region of Helmand in December, seven months after plans to send him to Iraq were scrapped following threats from Iraqi militants to kidnap or kill him.

The military posted him only after the British media and selected members of the international press agreed not to report his presence until he had returned from a scheduled 4-6 month deployment. The embargo was broken on Thursday when German, Australian and U.S. Web sites reported he was in Afghanistan.

The breaking of the embargo, a rare agreement in Britain's usually free-for-all media environment, infuriated the military.
I actually knew this. A guy I served with ran across him in early January.
 

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
says he spent 10 wks in country out of a normal 6 mo deployment.

Step daughter is heading to SW Asia in 2 wks, deployment time....


...12 - 15 months.
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
From the Guardian, a touch cynical methinks, he was actually in Afghanistan.
WITH one bound, Prince Harry was free: transformed from the Plonker Prince and Harry the Nazi to Harry the Secret Hero. From Yob and Nightclub Lizard to One of our Brave Lads.

He was taking on the Taliban nearly single-handed, instead of shoving photographers off pavements outside London clubs in the early hours. "When Harry met Tali", blazed the Daily Star headline. The royal family was for once not only decorative, but useful — the best publicity for years.

"I think it has all been very positive," said Ingrid Seward, executive editor of Majesty magazine. "It's terrific for his reputation, for the royal family and for the army. It's very commendable that he wants to fight for his country, and I'm sure that's what people think."

What was clear was that the royal family's careful hopes of rebranding the third in line to the throne, keeping him in the army and out of trouble — so often derailed in the past by unfortunate incidents in bars and at parties — had paid off, albeit six weeks earlier than planned.

The choreographed photographs, film and interviews, waiting to run when he was safely back in Britain in April, could be used immediately by the media organisations that had prepared them, in what Defence Secretary Des Browne described as the Ministry of Defence's contingency for this possibility.

"Those who command him had plans in place for the possibility that the story would break," Mr Browne said.

"Not taking anything away from the young man," said celebrity publicist Max Clifford, "but this was a total, superficial, PR exercise, wasn't it? He was getting a lot of adverse publicity, coming out of clubs and what-not and they've tried to turn everything around. They have taken him away and I am sure it will impress a lot of people.

"I would be totally amazed if he was placed in any situation where he was in real danger. I am sure he was protected. Do you think he was in the same situation as the ordinary boys and girls?

"The answer is no. It was a controlled explosion — virtual reality. It will be interesting to see how it plays."

Other royal watchers also had their doubts. Robert Lacey, a royal biographer, said from Saudi Arabia: "There is a poignant photograph of (Harry) here in the English language press today, showing him walking down a street, passing a boy on a donkey.

"I don't want to denigrate him, but there's no interaction with the local population in Afghanistan; they don't speak the same language and the impression is of a mercenary. It may be playing well in the UK, but out here it looks as though it is glamorising and humanising the war. It almost looks like a Hollywood movie set.

"From my perspective, if he is doing something that can't be reported, then he should not be doing it. There is a slightly distasteful patness with which this is all being wheeled out: a flood of interviews and photographs — just too many. It all seems over-prepared: PR overkill, something of a stunt."

If there was one consolation, it was that the Harry story took up only one column in the local Saudi press, compared with five for the Foreign Minister's current visit to India.
 

DRB

unemployed bum
Oct 24, 2002
15,242
0
Watchin' you. Writing it all down.
According to the friend that met him (Harry sorta worked for him), said that Helmand is a pretty rough and tumble part of Afghanistan with pretty much non-stop fighting. It was one of the reasons they sent him there is that the press is kinda afraid of that part of Afghanistan.

Publicity stunt or not, his nuts were hanging out there pretty far.