Prince Harry killed 25 Taliban: “Every death was filmed”. (Photo by Marty Melville/AFP via Getty Images)
As the book ‘Spare’ (The Substitute, in French) hits bookstores this Tuesday 10 January 2023, Prince Harry’s autobiography is already pouring ink. The foreign press was able to obtain copies in advance and has already published numerous revelations. Especially about his time in the military. Claiming to have “killed 25 Taliban”, the son of King Charles III. drew much criticism.
This is undoubtedly one of the most sensational excerpts from Prince Harry’s biography. Amid revelations about losing his virginity to an older woman, his estranged relationship with Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles or his drug use following the death of Lady Diana, the youngest prince in Britain’s royal family seems to be hiding nothing, including things that don’t make him happy in the most positive light.
Video. Mourning for his mother, sibling rivalry … What Prince Harry reveals in his book “The Substitute”.
Revelations about his years in Afghanistan
In his youth, Prince Harry was a soldier and notably carried out two missions in Afghanistan. In an excerpt of his biography published by our colleagues at Yahoo UK, Meghan Markle’s husband says: “We continued to follow the two bikes through several villages while complaining about the bureaucracy of the war, the reluctance of superiors to tell us what we were trained to do it. Perhaps in our complaints we were not so different from soldiers in all wars.”
He affirms it without taboo: “We wanted to fight: we didn’t understand the big problems, the underlying geopolitics.” Citing the 25 Taliban he allegedly killed, Prince Harry has been accused of “betraying the army, his second family”. Perhaps because enemy deaths remain a taboo subject in the military, as the main entrant explains in his memoir. “Some commanders have often said publicly and privately that they feared that every Taliban killed would create three more, so they were extremely cautious.” to “encourage” to recruit more. Even if it was not easy for Prince Harry to live with: “Sometimes we had the impression that the commanders were right: we created more Taliban. But there had to be a better answer than hovering nearby while innocent people were slaughtered.”
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Deaths caught on video
When the number of enemies killed during the war was not to be disclosed to the public, the army kept an accurate count. “Every death is filmed,” says Prince William’s little brother. “The camera that was installed on the nose of the Apache (the helicopter he flew, ed.). So the videos were carefully dissected after each mission. When we got back to base, we went into the video room of the assassination and watched each death on a plasma screen hanging on the wall.”
His commander in particular checked each video with special attention: “He was hungry to find errors. He wanted us to make mistakes (…) but despite his best efforts, he never did anything that was inappropriate towards our victims. I was a member of six missions that ended in loss of life and they were all deemed justified by a man who wanted to crucify us. So I think it’s justified.
Prince Harry’s army is scared
In his memoirs, Prince Harry tells of the fear he shared with his comrades: that of killing civilians, innocent people. “Since my arrival, my goal has been to go to bed with no doubts that I did the right thing: to know that my goals are the right ones, that I am shooting at the Taliban and only at the Taliban, not.” Civilians nearby.” All with one mantra: “I wanted to return to England with all my limbs, but most of all I wanted to return home with my conscience intact.”
That’s another reason why he counted exactly how many people were killed by his bullets: “Most soldiers can’t tell you exactly how many people they killed. Sometimes in the middle of a fight it’s hard to tell where the shots came from. But in the age of Apache and computers, everything I did during both of my missions was recorded. I always knew exactly how many enemy combatants I had killed. And I always thought it was important not to hide this number. (.. .) So here’s my number. 25. It’s not a number that gives me satisfaction. But neither is it, nor is it a number I’m ashamed of.”
Everything before the clarification: “Of course I would prefer not to have this number on my military résumé or in my memory, but I would also prefer to live in a world without Taliban, a world without death. But I know that certain realities cannot change that.”
Video. King Charles biographer warns Prince Harry’s book could mark ‘the end of the royal family’
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