Harry, Holly, and a Lettuce.
ooooeeeooo I look just like Buddy Holly
oh oh and you’re Mary Tyler Moore
I don’t care what they say about us anyway
I don’t care about that!
Okay, so I logged on to Google today and I happen to see this headline:
The actual story turned out to be a man chasing a robber away from the store he was shopping in with a bag full of bleach which contained a single lettuce, but oh, such wonderful headlines. Other gems found in recent months have included ‘MPs in Dining Room “Misuse Probe”‘ and ‘Documents Reveal BBC Dyke Drama’, as well as various other amusements.
In actual news (with actual graphs) we have discovered a new planet, which makes my inner Sci-Fi nerd do triple jumps and gives me a little squee of excitement, and there are debates over whether Harry should be sent to Iraq. Now let’s just ignore how we’d all love it if the monarchy happened to accidentally get blown up (actually, that’s probably just me) and think a second:
- Harry goes to Iraq. The opposition, as promised, make him a target.
- Harry goes out on patrol. Possibly gets seriously disturbed by things he sees.
Harry either decides to go home or not. If he does, what do we do; decide ‘hey ho we were wrong’ and withdraw him, meaning it really is one law for the rich another for the poor? Or leave a young man to rot in Iraq; a young man who happens to be third in line to the throne? Let’s assume we leave him there, whether by his choice or not.
- Harry goes out on patrol. Many people are blown up due to the opposition trying to blow Harry up.
Harry is either captured, killed, or eventually returns home.
- If Harry is captured, Jesus, people, think of the consequences: a member of the royal family in enemy hands. You thought the Iran thing was bad with a couple of unknown soldiers? We’ll be recieving him in bits! The war’ll spark up again! Death! Etcetera!
- If Harry is killed… we lose a young man, a nation mourns, people say ‘O shit’, and rather than withdrawing our troops, we fight again for revenge.
- If, against the odds, he survives (and let me just say how slim the chances of this are, as it’s dangerous enough for an ordinary soldier or even citizen in Iraq, let alone an actual political target serving on the front line) we get a prince, maybe even someday a king, who is a hardened fighter, who has learnt to kill, and who is possibly severely traumatised by what he has seen. Call me strange, but that is not who I want as a leader.
If Tony Blair announced he wanted to serve on the front line, we’d go bezerk! Now, I appreciate Son of the Prince of Wales and Prime Minister of Great Britain are hardly the same thing, but the point still stands - Harry will be endangering both himself and his fellow soldiers by being out there, and indeed his country. ARE WE INSANE? Withdraw him before it’s too late!
I obviously don’t want to make it one for the rich, another for the poor. I’d much rather we had no monarchy at all. But the fact remains that as long as we have the monarchy they are there to serve us, not endanger us. And regardless of who he is, Harry is a 22 year old, and nobody that age - if indeed we ever are - should be able to throw their life away. It’s a senseless waste of human life and the sooner we realise that, the better for all of us, and for all those people in Iraq.
I may not agree with what they’re doing, but I salute them nonetheless.
Abs x
