Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Britain - Pulling Out For Harry?

Interesting:

Britain's official policy on Iraq is that its troops will leave as soon as they can hand control over to Iraqis. But there is one particular soldier who, according to a crescendo of British newspaper reports, does not seem quite so replaceable.

Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne and second son of Prince Charles, is an army officer, reportedly with a hankering to be treated as just another soldier in line for rotation in southern Iraq.

The Ministry of Defense has dismissed the idea as speculation, but newspapers have already started speculating on a different tack — not so much about whether he will be deployed in Iraq as about his security if he does go. He would, one report said, be a "bullet magnet" in an area where British troops confront what the authorities here call Iranian-backed Shiite insurgents.

Of course, they don't explicitly state it, but I'm assuming that they're saying Britain is pulling out of Iraq to protect the Prince, which to me, is bullshit. Like there aren't other strings that Harry's father could have pulled rather than convincing Tony Blair to leave Iraq entirely. Yeah. Bullshit.