The minute they started calling Prince Harry a bullet magnet, Blair's sphincter tightened!

[trumad]

As Symbolman said in his thread--- this one move by this kid Prince might be significant as hell.

[El Supremo]

1. We got any princes who want to fight in Iraq?

That would sure be one way to get out.

[El Supremo]

5. I don't think this one would matter.

[saigon68]

12. We got a Chimpanzee who dodged Viet-Nam

His whole family is getting drunk, doing coke and dodging Iraq-Nam




Pierce Bush and his friend

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. I had noticed that.....

Maybe it will keep other young Englishmen out of the hellhole.

[MonkeyFunk]

3. I don't understand

I really doubt Prince Harry is behind this pullout. He wanted to go - he didn't want special privileges. I don't think it was a bluff.

Prince Andrew fought in the Falklands. Brits aren't afraid to send royals into war.

[trumad]

4. I don't think he had a plan either...

but--- this aint the Falklands.

[MonkeyFunk]

6. oh, I know it's different

but the British military could easily have refused to send Harry because he would endanger his unit. I don't think Blair made this decision in order to save Harry.

In fact, there will still be thousands of British troops there, so Harry may well go anyway.

[truebrit71]

9. Prince Andrew wasn't sipping champagne on the quarterdeck either...

...he saw plenty of operational duty dodging Exocets in his helicopter...

I have to give Prince Harry his dues here, his stance is admirable and should set an example to other world leaders and their offspring as relates to this war...

[babylonsister]

7. This was posted January 8, so I don't know how much credit I'd give to

the fine young prince. The plan was in the works, the deadline was announced.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/16408005.htm

[jannyk]

11. Except that he's been insisting he go for nearly a year....

...so there goes the 'opportunist' theory. This is not 'new' news, it has just been re-heated and served up again by the media.

From the April 24th, 2006 edition of the Times

...<<Prince Harry, 21, who recently passed out from Sandhurst as a Second Lieutenant, has said that he intends to serve with his men wherever they are sent and was reported yesterday to have threatened to resign if he were not allowed on the front line. ...snip...

...Prince Harry will soon start an intensive five-month training course at Bovington Camp in Dorset where he will learn to become a platoon commander of 11 soldiers for an armoured reconnaissance role. His publicly declared insistence on being with his men at all costs appeared previously to have been backed by the MoD. ...snip...

...Prince Harry said in an interview to mark his 21st birthday last year: “There’s no way I’m going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country . . . That may sound very patriotic but it’s true.”>>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article708666.ece

[Beausoir]

8. I noted the irony.

How coincidental.

[Rex]

10. I think the British wanted to pull out of Iraq years ago.

Maybe this is the excuse they need. It's quite obvious they will not follow us into Iran.