Kathlyn Hotynski

In May 2006, Prince Harry joined the Blues and Royals, a regiment of the Household Calvary in the British Army. At the time, people seemed to think it was an honorable thing to do, seeing as though he could have simply mooched off of his father, Charles, Prince of Wales, and waited for his possible chance at taking the throne.

But this past weekend, talks of Prince Harry possibly being sent to Iraq heated up, and the public opinion from a year ago changed as many began to take the position that he shouldn’t be sent to Iraq.

There are many arguments that are being made against sending Prince Harry to Iraq to serve with the 1st Mechanised Brigade of the 3rd Mechanised Division (UK). One is that Iraqi insurgents would target not only Prince Harry, but his brigade as well in an attempt to make a statement through killing him. Additionally, people think that sending someone that is in the line of succession to the British Throne is absurd. The Monarchist League of New Zealand felt so strongly about it they voiced their displeasure with the decision publicly.

Any argument against sending Prince Harry to Iraq is a bad one. Whether Prince Harry joined the British Army as a publicity stunt or truly to help out the cause is up for debate. However, Prince Harry and everyone else involved knew the risks.

When you join the military, the chance of being sent into battle is always there, and that is something that our current society has forgotten and needs to be reminded of. Despite his position in the succession line, Prince Harry does not deserve any more privileges in the army than another person who joined without being in the succession line.

I don’t find it hard to believe that Iraqi insurgents would target Prince Harry, or want to at least. But I can honestly say that if Prince Harry walked up to me at a local grocery store asking for help in order to find the milk aisle, I would have no idea it was Prince Harry and I would simply escort him to the milk.

Prince Harry looks like a normal human being, with no distinguishing qualities that separate him from anyone else. His difference with the rest of society is because of his family name, and if I couldn’t identify the man, I would be surprised that an Iraqi insurgent with less technology at his fingertips would have any better luck.

Take this normal-looking person and wrap him up in the same uniform that everyone else in the British Army is wearing, and tell me how easy it is to find him. If it took Tom Hanks more than two hours to find Private Ryan, I think it would take a considerable effort for an Iraqi insurgent to find Prince Harry.

If the British Army is trained correctly, the superior officers of Prince Harry won’t be treating him any differently than any of the other soldiers. This means nothing will be done to him that would make him stick out. Additionally, it is reasonable to think that leaks of where Prince Harry may be would be very minuscule. And if leaks do become an issue, why wouldn’t the British Army just give bogus information as to where Prince Harry is and then wait for someone to come looking, thus drawing insurgents out into

the open?

The situation is also overshadowing the effect that this all has on the other members of the Army that work with Prince Harry. It seems to overshadow their accomplishments, and I think I would feel pretty worthless if I were working with Prince Harry and he received preferential treatment simply because of his daddy, especially when the main goal of army basic training is to break down the old life of the soldier and to get them into the mentality that the main focus is no longer their own life but the lives of everyone else in their particular unit.

Prince Harry should not be stopped from being deployed to Iraq. He, and everyone else involved, knew what he was getting into when he signed up to serve, and if he backs out now with threats of deployment, it would make him look even weaker as the possibility of him taking the crown becomes greater and greater every day.

He will not be targeted by Iraqi insurgents, as much as they would like to have everyone believe that. Of course the insurgents are going to release information on how they plan to capture him – it would be absurd not to believe that. But the British army actually believing the propaganda and shaping their strategy around it is equally absurd. That’s what the insurgents want, and they will make up any story that shows their determination to kill the man in hopes of scaring everyone.

But have no fear. Something that has been overlooked by seemingly everyone is the effect that Prince Harry, if serving like any ordinary soldier, would have on the soldiers he works around. It would be a huge moral boost to these men who haven’t had much to give them high sprits.

And no Iraqi insurgent ploy could ever prevail over the determination of countless men fighting with everything they’ve got simply because someone next in the line of succession for the British Crown is serving alongside them and lending a helping hand to those who truly need it.

Hansen is a freshman print journalism major and Showcase/Scene editor of The Spectator.