“It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it make me ashamed,” he writes, “When I was plunged into the heat and confusion of battle, I didn’t think about those as 25 people. You can’t kill people if you see them as people. In truth, you can’t hurt people if you see them as people. They were chess pieces taken off the board, bad guys eliminated before they kill good guys.”
Military leaders criticised subsequent media coverage of the remarks, which were leaked to the press before the book’s release.
Col. Richard Kemp, a former army officer who was moved to Kabul in 2003 to take command of the forces in Afghanistan, told the BBC that while it was rare, he had no issue with Prince Harry disclosing the number of people he had killed.
He expressed alarm, though, with analogies to deceased Taliban terrorists as chess pieces, stating that such statements would serve as “propaganda for the enemy.”
Ex-colonel Tim Collins meanwhile charged Harry with “turning against” his military kin. Col Collins, who gained worldwide fame for an eve-of-battle speech to troops in Iraq, said: “That’s not how you behave in the Army; it’s not how we think. He has badly let the side down. We don’t do notches on the rifle butt. We never did.”
Harry’s talk of Taliban kills in Afghanistan tarnishes reputation
Prince Harry condemns ‘dangerous spin’ on Taliban comments
A “dangerous lie,” according to Prince Harry, is that he boasted in his new book about killing 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan. Prince Harry condemns ‘dangerous spin’ on Taliban comments.
Some military leaders criticised the prince for referring to the deceased as “chess pieces” when he spoke about deaths in Spare.
Harry, however, said on US television that the media had misinterpreted his comments and that the resulting spin harmed his family. Additionally, he defended his comments by noting that his goal was to lower veteran suicide.
The non-fiction book Spare, which was released on Tuesday, has sold more copies than any other non-fiction title in UK history. Despite numerous snippets from the memoir being published in the press before its official release, some 400,000 copies have been purchased.
Last week, it was unintentionally distributed early at bookstores all around Spain, allowing people there to purchase a copy as well.
Harry stated that it had been a challenging time in a little teaser clip from an appearance with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to promote the book.
“The last few days have been hurtful and challenging, not being able to do anything about those leaks,” he said, “If I heard anyone boasting about that kind of thing, I would be angry. But it’s a lie.”
Harry said that now the book was out, he hoped people would be able to “see the context”.
He said, “It’s really troubling and very disturbing that they can get away with it because they had the context. My words are not dangerous – but the spin of my words are very dangerous to my family. That is a choice they’ve made.”
He stated the “most important thing is to be honest” and to allow veterans the space to express their experiences “without any shame,” in reference to his candour about murdering people while doing military duty.
“My whole goal and my attempt with sharing that detail is to reduce the number of [veteran] suicides,” he added.
In Spare, Prince Harry reveals for the first time that he killed 25 enemy fighters during two tours in the Helmand region of Afghanistan. Prince Harry condemns ‘dangerous spin’ on Taliban comments.
“It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it make me ashamed,” he writes, “When I was plunged into the heat and confusion of battle, I didn’t think about those as 25 people. You can’t kill people if you see them as people. In truth, you can’t hurt people if you see them as people. They were chess pieces taken off the board, bad guys eliminated before they kill good guys.”
Military leaders criticised subsequent media coverage of the remarks, which were leaked to the press before the book’s release.
Col. Richard Kemp, a former army officer who was moved to Kabul in 2003 to take command of the forces in Afghanistan, told the BBC that while it was rare, he had no issue with Prince Harry disclosing the number of people he had killed.
He expressed alarm, though, with analogies to deceased Taliban terrorists as chess pieces, stating that such statements would serve as “propaganda for the enemy.”
Ex-colonel Tim Collins meanwhile charged Harry with “turning against” his military kin. Col Collins, who gained worldwide fame for an eve-of-battle speech to troops in Iraq, said: “That’s not how you behave in the Army; it’s not how we think. He has badly let the side down. We don’t do notches on the rifle butt. We never did.”
Harry’s talk of Taliban kills in Afghanistan tarnishes reputation
News Desk