“I killed 25 of them.” Harry’s “confession” about the Taliban is no accident

The attacks on the royal family were not enough. In his book “Spare. The Minor” the prince Harry he also rails against i Taliban, remedying criticism on all fronts and making an already fiery and complex theme incandescent. Not only. His statements would endanger British soldiers and would also risk being exploited, offering a foothold to those who have proven to be anything but defenders of human rights.

“I killed 25 Taliban”

In his autobiography Prince Harry recalls the period spent in Afghanistanas an Apache helicopter pilot and of the six missions in which he participated, killing, by his own admission, 25 Taliban: “It wasn’t a statistic that made me proud,” remember the duke, “but it didn’t even embarrass me. When I was in the heat of fighting, I didn’t think of those 25 as people. They were chessmen removed from the board, the bad guys eliminated first, before they could kill the good guys.”

A’statement that opens the doors of a world, putting us in front of the hot topics of war, of the death, of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, with all its consequences. The reactions were not long in coming. For British MPs and veterans Harry, with his words, would have endangered the soldiers, his own colleagues, casting a shadow over the British army.

To the Sun ex-Colonel Richard Kemp claims the prince’s is a “betrayal by the people he fought with” And “puts your personal safety at risk”, especially now that the duke can no longer count on the protection of Scotland Yardrevoked after Megxit. “He shot himself in the foot… and will probably incite those who want revenge and will try to do it”Kemp adds. Another Royal Marine veteran, Ben McBean, cut it short by inviting the Duke to “shut up”while Conservative MP Bob Stewart defined “unpleasant” his statement.

Criticisms even from the Taliban

Harry managed to get criticized by the Taliban regarding the value of human life. The question has science fiction if we think that we are referring to the same people who banned the university from women (only to list the latest prohibition in chronological order). Taliban leader Anas Haqqani tweeted: “Mr. Harry! The ones he killed weren’t chess pieces, they were humans. They had families waiting for their return.”

It seems that the memoir of Harry, at least judging by the first anecdotes leaked to the press, is not so much a direct account, but more a set of imprudent, questionable, perhaps even out of control statements at times. Richard Kemp points out that Harry’s way of presenting the facts inherent in the time spent in Afghanistan could “mislead” the reader, making him believe that British soldiers have no sense of proportion, i “values” is that “The British Army trains people, including [Harry]not to see enemies as human beings, which is far from the truth”. Passing such a message is also dangerous because it could lead to reprisals against British soldiers.

The Duke of Sussex it would describe the military as a sort of war machine and the enemy as an obstacle to be broken down. Without any trace of humanity and feelings. It’s all much more complicated than that, more profound and devastating as only a war, unfortunately, can be. Not only that: Harry offered his side: this apparent lack of empathy in the descriptions was exploited by the Taliban, who cleverly turned it against the prince and, through him, against the West.

Centuries of history of Western thought (and not only that, actually), should have taught us to think critically, keeping in mind the immeasurable value of life and human rights. Furthermore, conflicts are issues that cannot be resolved and cannot be explained, in all their nuances, with a chapter of a memoir. In such cases, there is always the risk of speaking out of turn, trying to reduce everything to the confines of a page. Maybe this time Harry he said too much and badly.