Royalist Opinion

[Manedwolf]

Did Drudge leak the story himself or did he just link to another site someone sent him?  Odds are good that if he found the link, you can assume the wrong people would also find it very quickly. 

He broke it - the story was in an Australian womens magazine earlier this month, which was ignored by everyone it seems up until Drudge found it, contacted the MoD and appears to have told them he would run it anyway despite the media blackout which (without exception) the UK Press and larger international media outlets had agreed to.

Perhaps the Taliban might have picked it up from the original source - i suppose if the next batch of prisoners turn out to be following a detox beach diet and copying rose byrnes beauty tips we will know they did.

Perhaps Matt should go talk to some of those Gurkhas whose lives he willingly put in jeopardy. I'm sure they'd be...pleased to see him?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

there are some funny ghurka stories  one from the falklands where the rumour started on shore amongst an argentine unit that ghurkas were landing next morning. the aregentines surrendered premptively

the other was that during the ghurka war a british soldier was sent on recon between the lines. he hollered back from the dark  sir! i've captured a ghurka!  his officer yelled back  "very good smithers ! bring him in!"    a lil time elapsed and the smither hollered again " i can't! he won't let me!"

[agricola]

heres another one:

In World war II, an English reporter who had heard so much about the bravery and elan of the Gurkhas visited a camp just in front of the enemy lines (Germans). During the course of his reporting, he had occasion to observe a mission being conducted.

The mission was to airdrop a bunch of soldiers behind enemy lines to conduct some relatively light action. He watched the commander of the Gurkhas (a British soldier) pitch the mission and then ask for volunteers. To his surprise, only about half the Gurkhas volunteered and were sent off.

Throughly disillusioned with the legends of Gurkha bravery, the reporter went back home. After the war, he happened to run into a Gurkha who had been there, and asked him why half the troops had failed to volunteer. It turned out that none of the squad, both those who volunteered and those who did not, were aware that they would get a parachute for the drop. Hence the low turnout.

[K Frame]

OK, not to detract from the information in this thread, but this just has to be pointed out...


"Jock Stirrup"

Who the hell were his parents?

Hernia Truss and D Cup?

[HankB]

IIRC his uncle Andrew served in the Falklands Conflict as a helicopter pilot flying troops and supplies into some pretty hot areas.

Actually, I read somewhere that he and other pilots were using the choppers to decoy missiles aimed at British ships.  Get in between the missile and the ship, and get the missile to lock in on the chopper as the nearest target.  Then lead the missile away from the ship, and finally raise up at the last minute to let the missile pass underneath the chopper and harmlessly out to sea. 

Sort of like what was pictured in Hunt for Red October, when the USS Dallas decoyed the torpedo away from Red October and then blew straight up to the surface to evade destruction.

you yanks use chaff, we use royalty.  i guess we just have more class 

If we Yanks hadn't settled our relationship with royalty in the 18th Century, no doubt we'd be finding a similarly appropriate use for princes today as well. 

[RevDisk]

Perhaps Matt should go talk to some of those Gurkhas whose lives he willingly put in jeopardy. I'm sure they'd be...pleased to see him?

From the stories I've heard, the Gurkhas would probably thank the reporter for providing more targets.  'em folks ain't quite right.  I'd probably break a rib laughing if it turned out to be misinformation, that Prince Harry wasn't with the Gurkhas, and they were just kinda bored and wanted more target practice.   

IIRC his uncle Andrew served in the Falklands Conflict as a helicopter pilot flying troops and supplies into some pretty hot areas.

My HR guy was in the Navy and met Prince Andrew.  Apparently a very nice gentleman, and apparently not afraid to get into the mix.  An officer and a gentleman, now that's a very rare thing.  My hats off to both Princes.   

[Perd Hapley]

Well, strictly speaking, a prince is not a gentleman.   

[Sergeant Bob]

The story also ran in the German newspaper Bild as a gossip item.

[Iain]

I am absolutely amazed that the British media actually agreed to keep this quite.  The government must have made a deal with the devil.  As for Drudge, I hope he burns.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/02/news_blackout.html#commentsanchor

That's quite an interesting read on the subject. Basically the MOD agreed that the media could have access to him before, during and after deployment but not report anything until after. Now that the blackout has been broken the coverage has been pretty huge, The Sun had something like 11 pages on him today, so they must have built up quite a bit of material.

As for the Drudge comment, be careful lest you offend his environmental correspondent.

[Perd Hapley]

As for the Drudge comment, be careful lest you offend his environmental correspondent. 

You are cruel, sir.   

[drewtam]

He's got some stones and serves as an example to our elitist U.S. politicians who talk pro war but make sure their sons and daughters don't have to serve.

I've seen this argument many times before. But keep in mind some of the counter arguments:
1 If you don't have children of age, can you really fault them?
2 What about female children, traditionally we don't have military expectations for them
3 You can't make children join, it doesn't work that way
4 If one statistically compare Congress and the general public (including children, nephews, etc). Congress actually has a higher enrollment rate then the general public.
5 High public officials (Congress, presidents, etc) personally have very high military enrollment rates.

[Perd Hapley]

I see you saved the best rebuttal for last. 

4 If one statistically compare Congress and the general public (including children, nephews, etc). Congress actually has a higher enrollment rate then the general public.
5 High public officials (Congress, presidents, etc) personally have very high military enrollment rates.