- Andre Rhoden-Paul & British defense reporter Jonathan Beale
- bbc news
image source,WPA Pool
From 2012 to 2013, Prince Harry worked as a helicopter pilot.
A retired commander has accused Prince Harry of “turning his back” on another family that once supported him after “breaking his original family”.
In his memoirs, the Duke of Sussex described killing 25 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan as “removing pieces from a chessboard”.
Former colonel Tim Collins said “that’s not the way to do it in the military”.
Prince Harry details his experience as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan in his memoir Spare.
The book was released early in Spain and the BBC acquired a copy.
In the video, Prince Harry revealed for the first time that he had killed 25 enemy fighters. This is entirely possible as he traveled to Helmand, Afghanistan twice.
“I am neither proud nor ashamed of this number,” he wrote.
“When I got into the heat and chaos of the fight, I didn’t realize it was 25 people. You can’t kill if you treat people as people.”
“If you treat them as human beings, you can’t hurt them. They’re pawns removed from the chessboard, where the bad guys get wiped out before they kill the good guys.”
“They trained me to see them as ‘others,’ well trained.”
image source,Getty Images
Prince Harry details his experience as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan in his memoir Spare.
Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban leader, responded to the prince’s remarks on Twitter: “Mr Harry! Those you killed were not pawns, they were human beings; their families are waiting for their return…”
“I don’t expect that (the International Criminal Court) will subpoena you, or that human rights activists will denounce you because they are deaf and blind to you,” Haqqani said.
Colonel Collins, a retired commander, denounced the book in an interview with Forces News, calling it a “tragic money-making scam”.
Referring to Prince Harry’s revelation that he killed 25 enemy fighters, retired Colonel Collins said: “It shouldn’t be done in the military; it’s not the way we think.”
“He’s been a huge disappointment. We don’t notch gun stocks. Never,” Collins said.
The former colonel, who is famous for addressing the army on the eve of the Iraq war, said: “Harry has turned his back on another family – the army that supported him and destroyed his family of origin.”
He accused Prince Harry of choosing a “wrong path” and “pursuing wealth he doesn’t need”.
“In the end, all I saw was disappointment and pain as he pursued wealth he didn’t need and denied the love of family and comrades he desperately needed.”
Colonel Kemp said such rhetoric could “propaganda the enemy” and inspire retaliation.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a former army officer who was sent to Kabul to command troops in Afghanistan in 2003, told the BBC it was unusual but he was fine with Prince Harry revealing his kill numbers.
Soldiers do talk privately about people they have killed or wounded, sometimes “as a way to decompress after a period of combat,” he said.
In referring to the killed Taliban insurgents as “pawns”, Colonel Kemp said such remarks could “propaganda the enemy”.
He also said the comments could compromise Prince Harry’s safety and inspire retaliation.
“They’re always trying to radicalize people, recruit new people, and we’ve seen how the Taliban take advantage of that,” he said.
On his second long flight, Prince Harry briefly served as a frontline air controller on the ground, directing air strikes, before flying the Apache helicopter.
The US and its NATO allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to drive out the Taliban, who they say are harboring Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks .
Ben McBean, who lost an arm and a leg while serving in the Royal Afghan Marines, has been met by Prince Harry at several events, calling him a hero and saying the royal family needs to ‘shut up’ .
He tweeted: “Love you #PrinceHarry but you need to shut up! Can’t help but wonder who is around him.”
“If it was a good guy, someone would tell him to stop by now.”
Another soldier who is still serving told the BBC that Harry’s comments were “very unmilitary”.
image source,Getty Images
The Ministry of Defense declined to comment on Prince Harry’s claims.
Like many military personnel, he said he has no interest in statistics. Those who write books seem to be more interested in counting killings, which is more often the case.
As a helicopter pilot, Prince Harry can see individuals up close through sensors and screens in the cockpit, better than most.
He could also see the impact of the cannons and Hellfire missiles—although the clarity would soon be obscured by dust—and he could check the cockpit footage. But it’s not always possible to count the bodies on the ground, or to distinguish between the wounded and the dead.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would not comment on the appropriateness of the prince’s claim that he had killed 25 people, but said he was “very grateful to our armed forces”.
Asked about the number of people killed by the prince, a MoD spokesman said: “For security reasons we do not comment on operational details.”