Prince Harry to serve in Iraq as troop commander next year

[ECH1969]

Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, is to be sent to Iraq next year as a troop commander and is likely to patrol the war-ravaged country's hazardous border with Iran.

According to defence sources, Harry will join the Army's 1st Mechanised Brigade, which will be deployed in Basra in May 2007.

Harry has told colleagues that he is determined to go on operations and be treated as normally as possible - not kept out of the line of fire.

Substantial planning will go into the deployment. As a troop commander in the Blues and Royals, the prince will have the rank of cornet, equivalent to a second lieutenant, in charge of 11 men and four light tanks.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200602012179.htm

[WahooJunkie]

1. Alright Bush twins.

time to put your money where your coke is.

[Minstrel Boy]

2. He's already in uniform

I expect he'll join the Desert Rats.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. MoD dismisses Harry Iraq reports

The Ministry of Defence has dismissed media reports saying Prince Harry will be sent to Iraq next year.

The London Evening Standard quoted defence sources as saying he would serve there as a troop commander in the Blues and Royals regiment.

But the MoD said the report was "complete speculation" as no Iraq deployments had been set beyond 1 May.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4670172.stm

This is much more believable - they're wondering about when they can pull units out without looking as if they've failed. They wouldn't be scheduled which regiments get sent out 16 months in advance.

[LynnTheDem]

4. Watch the riots if Harry were killed in Iraq.

That would finally bring Tony the bLiar down.

[havocmom]

5. So, Blair is pulling troops out this year?

Or are the Royals THAT eager to get rid of their Harry Problem?

edit: typo

[NVMojo]

6. send the fecked up Bush twins!

[bluestateguy]

7. I give him credit

Like his father in the Falklands War, he will share in his nation's sacrifice when his country is at war.

He seems to have grown up quite a bit since that little incident with the Nazi armband at the party.

Are the Bush twins and George P. Bush paying attention?

[Stella_Artois]

12. Wrong Prince :)

Prince Andrew, Harry's Uncle served in the RN in 1982. Prince Charles also served in the RN, but had left by 1982.

[noonwitch]

18. I think Edward, the other uncle, served in the RAF

Charlie and Andy's little brother. I think he's best known for marrying a "tart", or at least a tart by british tabloid standards.

I don't know what Jenna Bush is up to, but I do know Barbara worked last summer at an AIDS orphanage in South Africa. I am not going to criticize her for that-there are so many children orphaned in southern Africa because of AIDS. It's a good cause for a first child to work on-it draws the public's attention to a problem many would like to forget about.

[Stella_Artois]

24. Almost

Edward joined the Royal Marines, but didn't make it through training, its one of the toughest in the world. He just wasn't cut out for it.

[Rambis]

8. Brits just had #100 die

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13501209,00.html

[leftchick]

9. BBC: MoD dismisses Harry Iraq reports

interesting....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4670172.stm

MoD dismisses Harry Iraq reports

Prince Harry has been training at Sandhurst Military Academy
The Ministry of Defence has dismissed media reports saying Prince Harry will be sent to Iraq next year.

The London Evening Standard quoted defence sources as saying he would serve there as a troop commander in the Blues and Royals regiment.

But the MoD said the report was "complete speculation" as no Iraq deployments had been set beyond 1 May.

Prince Harry is to join the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry when he leaves Sandhurst

[skiddlybop]

10. Still, Harry's in a regular unit

and not a Champagne TANG unit, chasing beaver and snarfing up all the coke in sight.

Harry's ten times the man Duhhhbya will ever be.

[WinkyDink]

11. It's been nice knowing you, Harry. Say hi to your dad James Hewitt for me.

That's why he's going.

[CottonBear]

23. Hewitt is not his father. That's absurd and off-topic. n/t

[MrPrax]

13. That is so stupid...

Makes you wonder just how 'rank and file' soldiers will end up dead because of the massive changes that have to be made to 'protect' every hair on Harry's head.

If the British were not huge targets before, they will be now...and for what?

To placate a 'royal' and his quest for military 'cred'?--jeez nobody in the British army ever died for that goal.

[JudyM]

14. Seems that the 'insurgents' would look to kidnap him for leverage... n/t

[skiddlybop]

15. Yes, exactly as stupid as all the US National Guard

having to die to baby-sit the Halliburton contractors who get paid 10 times what the back-door draftees get.

[MrPrax]

17. You got it...

It's easy to attack the war over legality, but let's stop for a moment and pretend to be supporters of the Iraq war...

Have you noticed that this one is far beyond even the basic rules of corruption and incompetence and that's inspite of a weak domestic press...shit, when Paul Bremer is handing underlings 3 million cash and telling them to get rid of it so the CPA doesn't get it, you are really stuck wondering what happened to the rest of the 600 million cash, Bremer and Co. had stashed for re-construction and exactly what the 'contractors' are there for...

Here's an superb MSM article on one POS assassinated just last week...great article that sheds recent light on some of this...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/13736727.htm

Mystery surrounds dead U.S. contractor
DEBORAH HASTINGS
Associated Press

There are fortunes to be made in Iraq, where seemingly everything is broken or looted or blown up. The fortunes come from fixing those things; there is no shortage of cash to hire the fixers.

Often they are characters writ large with bravado and cunning and greed, sprouting like weeds amid the rubble.

Dale Stoffel was all of that. He devised elaborate schemes to get Iraqi government contracts to repair an unending list of things that no longer worked. He posed for photographs in the desert wearing a flak vest and toting an M5 submachine gun. He clinched a cigar between his teeth.

He pushed those schemes until they became reality. He signed huge contracts with the interim Iraqi Defense Ministry - the biggest of which was to repair the country's broken-down arsenal of tanks, helicopters and jets.

....longish AP article at above link

[daleo]

16. This is still wait and see

But I think the royals have a fair record about "doing their bit", as far as wartime duty goes (Falklands, world wars).

[dryan]

19. Queen Elizabeth's.....

uncle, the Duke of York was in a plane that was shot down by the Germans.

[daleo]

21. And Mountbatten served as a midshipman in WWI

And commanded a destroyer in WWII before commanding the British in Asia.

[dryan]

22. King George....

served on a destroyer during WWI and was in the Battle of Jutland

[Stella_Artois]

25. HMS Kelly

Sunk at Crete, 1941 IIRC.

[Charlie Brown]

20. Prince Harry is a gentleman

I have mixed feelings about the Royals, but at least they have greater civic responsibility than the politicians.