{"id":51721,"date":"2023-01-08T23:00:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2023\/jan\/08\/prince-harry-afghanistan-deaths-spare"},"modified":"2023-01-08T23:00:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T14:00:49","slug":"if-harry-sounds-callous-about-killing-he-is-all-of-us-who-served-were-at-least-he-knows-why-joe-glenton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=51721","title":{"rendered":"If Harry sounds callous about killing, he is. All of us who served were \u2013 at least he knows why | Joe Glenton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The prince\u2019s comments about Afghan war deaths have caused a furore, but he was a decent officer, I\u2019m told, and much of what he says is true<\/p>\n<p>As a former soldier, I\u2019ve followed Prince Harry\u2019s career with a mix of ironic and genuine interest. We served at similar times and in the same war. Friends who worked alongside him in the Household Cavalry and Army Air Corps reflect that he was a decent, rather laddish officer who did his job \u2013 which is about the highest accolade available to anyone who went to Sandhurst.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m an avowed republican and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2W2eyFQC-K4\">make no secret of it<\/a>. I was a republican when I took the oath to the monarch required to join the military and I\u2019ve never wavered from that first political commitment. The army was a refuge from drudgery, not an expression of my politics. What I have gleaned from Harry over the years is that The Mob \u2013 the army he was preordained to join \u2013 may have ended up as a sort of refuge for him too: in his case as a shield from the withering press scrutiny that seems to have shaped his life, rather than from cycles of precarious work and poverty.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2023\/jan\/08\/prince-harry-afghanistan-deaths-spare\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The prince\u2019s comments about Afghan war deaths have caused a furore, but he was a decent officer, I\u2019m told, and much of what he says is trueAs a former soldier, I\u2019ve followed Prince Harry\u2019s career with a mix of ironic and genuine interest. We served at &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,938,1611,1987,61,44,52,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-military","category-monarchy","category-prince-harry","category-south-and-central-asia","category-taliban","category-uk-news","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51722,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51721\/revisions\/51722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}