For my 2c -
Harry should not go to Iraq, not because he is a royal, but because the media have already said (and it is a matter of public knowledge) which unit and which area he is likely to serve in.
This means that the insurgents will target him specifically (and in fact the British Intelligence units have already detected specific threats/plans to attack him and his unit) and that would put those serving under him under even more of a threat than they would be normally.
I expect that he is actually gutted not to go - there is no feeling worse than being left behind when the men you lead/know/trust are going into action, except perhaps the feeling that men have died specifically because you are there.
If I was serving with this unit, I would be feeling a mix of relief (one less reason to get shot at) and sadness (getting a squadron leader we do not know or trust).
This may have been said before - but I thought it worth stating an opinion as one who who has been to where they are going.
---------- Post added at 17:23 ---------- Previous post was at 17:17 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by BBKing
Not even that, considering that Harry would have been going to the South, where he's about as likely to bump into al-Qaeda as he is to ride into town on the back of Barney the Purple Dinosaur.
Remember there isn't an 'insurgency' as such, there's a small but unpleasant bunch of mainly foreign Sunni fighters who call themselves al-Qaeda, a larger Sunni bunch who are weed off about losing power and being ignored and several Shia groups, mainly linked to legitimate political parties in Iraq, and in a number of cases Iran. It's these latter guys that are killing our troops in larger and larger numbers, which, since they're the guys we're supposed to be *helping*, is the dirty little secret. After all, if Harry got blown up by a group allied to the Iraqi Prime Minister, that might just reveal that things aren't quite 'Us Versus The Terrorists'. Given that, it's unsurprising that he's being kept on a leash.
Of course, if it was a group allied to *Iran* that got him, what would be the result there? That would be a *really* hard decision (think about it).
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Sorry BB - have to disagree a bit on this one -
The insurgents from further North have already been quoted as saying that they would love to get at Harry - this would increase the risk in our zone (which, despite recent events is still a damn site safer than the US area of control) and put not just his unit, but all UK forces under increased threat.
Depending on your opinion - Al-Qaeda is either non-existant, a kind of "rent a terrorist" organisation, or came into true being post 9/11 - to most, it is a rallying call for anti-western fighters of any faith (we caught a number of non-muslim insurgents in Iraq).