To begin with, I think Prince Harry's remarks about killing Taliban insurgents whilst on duty in Afghanistan as a soldier, comparing the process to computer or video games like Playstation or Xbox were poorly phrased, but the cold fact is that there is most likely NO "politically correct" way of phrasing what basically a soldier does on the battlefield- which is basically KILL, but what's done is done. Harry should have said something "I did my duty as a soldier" and left it at that, but on the other hand, the shrill condemnation of him by the likes of Lindsey German, convenor of the "Stop The War Coalition" are deeply self-serving if not openly hypocritical- assuming that Ms German and her ilk are not avowed pacifists but only oppose wars engaged in by the West(what their take on violent jihadism is unclear).
We all know that's a soldier does- and Prince Harry(or Captain Wales as he is officially known to his brother officers and superiors) is a soldier just as we know that the bacon, sausages, pork chops or steaks on our breakfast or dinner plates didn't come from a pig or cow who dropped dead by the divine will of God(unless you think the slaughterer at the abbatoir fulfills His will!), the difference of course is that NO ONE would presumably care to have a cow or pig slaugthered before our very eyes-any more than we would wish to have Harry talk about killing insurgents like characters in a video or computer game
Although NO militarist- I opposed "regime change in Iraq- neither am I a pacifist in the sense that I don't believe that the use of military force is IPSO FACTO immoral or unjust( military force helped save the Union during the US Civil War as well as free the slaves, helped destroy the crazed regimes of the Third Reich and the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere in WWII, and kept the peace in Europe during the long stand-off of the Cold War( 1946-1991)); military power is like electricity or fire- it can be used for good or bad things but is neutral in itself
To my mind too many liberal or leftist commentators tend to "mock the very uniforms that guard you whilst you sleep", to quote my countryman Rudyard Kipling
(1865-1936), whilst ignoring the threats to open societies(be it terrorism- Islamic fundamentalism or irish republicanism-or Soviet Communism)-witness Dax Shepard's sneering at "Act Of Valor" as being somehow comparable to Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph Of The Will". As long as our society has avowed enemies then we shall require the services of those who are deputized to kill on our behalf. "Murder is only killing without a license- and EVERYBODY kills!" as the late Charles Bronson's character, Mob assassin Arthur Bishop, laconically observes in the 1972 thriller "The Mechanic".
anybody think as I do?
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