According to a veteran British commander, Prince Harry’s comments about murdering Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have damaged his reputation.
The Duke of Sussex refers to his 25 killings as “chess pieces taken off the board” in his autobiography.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a former army officer, told the BBC that Harry’s remarks were “ill-judged.”
He stated that the comments might have jeopardised his security and aroused retaliation.
In his biography Spare, which BBC News has a copy of after it went on sale early in Spain, Prince Harry goes into depth about his time serving as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.
“They trained me to ‘other’ them and they trained me well.”
“When I was plunged into the heat and confusion of battle, I didn’t think about those as 25 people. You can’t kill people if you see them as people.
“In truth, you can’t hurt people if you see them as people. They were chess pieces taken off the board, bad guys eliminated before they kill good guys.
Prior to beginning his second, longer tour, Harry temporarily worked as a forward air controller on the ground, calling in strikes while piloting Apache helicopters.
The Taliban’s chief Anas Haqqani tweeted in response to the prince’s remarks: “Mr Harry! The people you killed weren’t just pawns on a chessboard; they were real people with waiting families.
“I don’t expect that the (International Criminal Court) will summon you or the human rights activists will condemn you, because they are deaf and blind for you.”
In order to drive out the Taliban, who they said were harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda members connected to the 9/11 attacks, the US and its Nato allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001.
Col. Kemp, who was dispatched to Kabul in 2003 to assume command of the military operations in Afghanistan, said the Taliban insurgents killed were bad people and he had no issue with Prince Harry disclosing his kill total, but he took issue with the way Harry implied that the Taliban insurgents were viewed by the army as “sub-human and just as chess pieces to be knocked over.”
He said on BBC Breakfast: “I think he’s mistaken when he argues in his book that rebels were treated as they were just chess pieces to be used as a game of strategy to be thrown over.
That is absolutely not the case. And contrary to what he claims, it is not how the British Army teaches its recruits.
I think it was a mistake of judgement,” the speaker said. “That kind of speech, which doesn’t reflect reality, is deceptive and perhaps valuable to those who wish the British military and British government harm.
In defence of Harry, he claimed that the prince should be “proud” of his kill total because of the “effective influence” it would have had on the campaign, his bravery in the field, and the way he has supported wounded soldiers.
But he warned that it might make the duke’s security issues worse and encourage Taliban sympathisers.
“It inflames old feelings of revenge that might have been forgotten about… no doubt about it there are people in the world today who already would have seen this and will be thinking about getting him back,” he added.
Tim Collins, a retired commanding officer who rose to reputation for giving a speech to soldiers in Iraq on the eve of war, criticised the book, saying, “That’s not how you behave in the army, and that’s not how we think.”
Additionally, he claimed that Prince Harry “turned against” his military family after “destroying his birth family.”
The Spectator reported that Adam Holloway, the Gravesham-based Conservative MP who served in the British Army in Iraq, believed that many soldiers did not think it was proper to reveal their kill total.
“It’s not about macho codes. It’s about decency and respect for the lives you have taken,” he wrote.
Ben McBean, a member of the Royal Marines who lost an arm and a leg while fighting in Afghanistan and was hailed as a hero by Prince Harry after the two met at many engagements, told the royal to “stop talking.”
“Love you, #PrinceHarry, but you need to shut up,” he tweeted. Makes you question who he spends his time with.
If it were nice people, someone would have advised him to stop at this point.
According to an active service member, Harry’s remarks were “extremely unsoldier-like.”
Without access to all the individual patrol reports, the soldier, who has served many deployments in Afghanistan, said it would be difficult to determine how many “kills” he had directly participated in. It would also be more difficult to identify if many people were shooting roughly in the same direction.
He also said, like many military members, that he had little interest in keeping score. People who write books seem to be more interested in their kill statistics than those who don’t.
Harry would have had a better perspective than most from his helicopter’s cockpit because he could use sensors and screens to see people up close.
He would also be able to monitor video from the cockpit and would be able to observe the effects of his cannon and hellfire missiles, though clarity would quickly be masked by dust. However, it is not always feasible to determine if someone is dead or injured from the bodies that are lying on the ground.
The prince claimed to have killed 25 people, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would not comment on the propriety of that allegation and added that he was “enormously grateful to our armed forces.”
When queried about the prince’s kill total, a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman responded, “We do not comment on operational information for security reasons.”
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