The Royal Mega Thread, Part II

[sputnik]

i don't see how it's a security risk if locations and dates aren't disclosed and it's years after the fact? how is that a security risk but releasing video of osama bin laden's killing after the fact isn't? how come one is frowned upon but the other is state approved propaganda to show how great the US is at killing terrorists? and the guy who led the whole thing wrote a book about it and i don't see anyone worrying about his security or how it's frowned upon... so yeah, i'm not seeing the issue here. he was matter of fact about it.

and it might not be the 'done thing' but maybe it should be and maybe veterans would be less likely to have trauma and trouble readjusting to civilian life and massive mental health issues if they could talk about it? and maybe as societies we'd be less inclined to go to war in the first place if people knew the realities?

Jan 6, 2023 16:04:53 GMT loftybike said:

 (even if he's been privileged enough to have a choice. Unlike the poor people the army just sends there)

there's no mandatory conscription in the US or the UK so no one is there that doesn't want to be, rich or poor.

[loftybike]

^^^Good for the soldiers.

[loftybike]

Jan 6, 2023 16:36:10 GMT sputnik said:

i don't see how it's a security risk if locations and dates aren't disclosed and it's years after the fact? how is that a security risk but releasing video of osama bin laden's killing after the fact isn't? how come one is frowned upon but the other is state approved propaganda to show how great the US is at killing terrorists? and the guy who led the whole thing wrote a book about it and i don't see anyone worrying about his security or how it's frowned upon... so yeah, i'm not seeing the issue here. he was matter of fact about it.

and it might not be the 'done thing' but maybe it should be and maybe veterans would be less likely to have trauma and trouble readjusting to civilian life and massive mental health issues if they could talk about it? and maybe as societies we'd be less inclined to go to war in the first place if people knew the realities.

The Taliban just called the top german news magazine to make the statement in my post above, and Germany is certainly not a main player in this, so it's important for Taliban. Right now, it is a security risk for his whole family.

Veterans are not traumatized because they can't write a book about their general plight as rich and privileged people and kinda randomly mention their kill count in it. Imho, he rather devalues their painful experiences.

[sputnik]

^^^^
again, how is that different or a security risk when releasing video of the navy seal team storming osama bin laden's compound wasn't? and the guy who led that also wrote a book, by the way. 

www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Operator/Robert-ONeill/9781501145049

and the taliban also released a statement and made threats after bin laden was killed.

www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-56842820110507

[lindsaywhit]

Col Kemp, who was sent to Kabul in 2003 to take command of forces in Afghanistan, said the Taliban insurgents killed were bad people and he did not have a problem with Prince Harry revealing his kill number - but took issue with the way Harry suggested Taliban insurgents were seen by the army as "sub-human and just as chess pieces to be knocked over".

He told BBC Breakfast: "I think he's wrong when he says in his book that insurgents were seen just as being virtually unhuman - subhuman perhaps - just as chess pieces to be knocked over.

"That's not the case at all. And it's not the way the British Army trains people as he claims...

"I think that sort of comment that doesn't reflect reality, is misleading and potentially valuable to those people who wish the British forces and British government harm, so I think it was an error of judgement."

Bullshit. Such effing bullshit. How do you think they take 18 year old kids and train them to kill and maim and destroy whatever target they are ordered to? 

My godson, who is my own sons' best friend, shocked and appalled me when he came home after an extended tour in Afghanistan in the Marines. I asked him if he got to know any Afghans and he looked at me like I was insane, then calmly told me how much he hated them all. I must have stuttered out some platitude because he cut me off with a shake of his head, and went on to describe things that made me curl up and die inside. Of course he was, and still is, suffering from PTSD. (Purple Heart from injuries suffered when the jeep he was riding in hit an IED - it killed everyone else.) Ten years later, we still worry about suicide, because he still can go very, very, dark. Because that hatred was trained into him, and it is still breaking him.

[constancespry]

Jan 6, 2023 13:12:41 GMT Sarzy said:

That is hilarious, thanks for posting.

It seems Harry is going nuclear now his gran is gone. He isn’t just burning bridges, he’s blowing them up and stomping on them. It’s quite entertaining to watch.😄

[sputnik]

Jan 6, 2023 17:04:05 GMT lindsaywhit said:

Col Kemp, who was sent to Kabul in 2003 to take command of forces in Afghanistan, said the Taliban insurgents killed were bad people and he did not have a problem with Prince Harry revealing his kill number - but took issue with the way Harry suggested Taliban insurgents were seen by the army as "sub-human and just as chess pieces to be knocked over".

He told BBC Breakfast: "I think he's wrong when he says in his book that insurgents were seen just as being virtually unhuman - subhuman perhaps - just as chess pieces to be knocked over.

"That's not the case at all. And it's not the way the British Army trains people as he claims...

"I think that sort of comment that doesn't reflect reality, is misleading and potentially valuable to those people who wish the British forces and British government harm, so I think it was an error of judgement."

Bullshit. Such effing bullshit. How do you think they take 18 year old kids and train them to kill and maim and destroy whatever target they are ordered to? 

My godson, who is my own sons' best friend, shocked and appalled me when he came home after an extended tour in Afghanistan in the Marines. I asked him if he got to know any Afghans and he looked at me like I was insane, then calmly told me how much he hated them all. I must have stuttered out some platitude because he cut me off with a shake of his head, and went on to describe things that made me curl up and die inside. Of course he was, and still is, suffering from PTSD. (Purple Heart from injuries suffered when the jeep he was riding in hit an IED - it killed everyone else.) Ten years later, we still worry about suicide, because he still can go very, very, dark. Because that hatred was trained into him, and it is still breaking him.

this. that statement by kemp is such fucking propagandist, revisionist, hypocritical, disingenuous bullshit. 
have you ever watched video and audio of drone strikes? 
the guys controlling those things (from the safety of bases located thousands of miles away) talk about it as if they were playing video games, describing collateral damage (i.e. dead civilians) as acceptable losses and showing absolutely no acknowledgement of the fact that they are killing humans. 
that is what military training does. the only way you can get these people onto battlefields and to kill dozens or hundreds of other people is to train them to take all emotion out of it, to totally dehumanize the enemy and to follow orders without thinking about the people they're killing as, well, people. 

[no1novice]

Prince Harry first heard of Queen Elizabeth's death from BBC website

Published

11 hours ago

Queen and Harry in 2015Image source, Julian Simmonds
Image caption,
The late Queen and Prince Harry, pictured in 2015, had spoken a few days before her death
By Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

Prince Harry says he first found out about the death of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth from the BBC website.

In his memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex says he had a phone call from his father, then Prince Charles, to say that the Queen's health was worsening.

But while Prince Harry made plans to travel to Balmoral, he says he was asked not to bring his wife Meghan.

By the time his plane landed in Scotland, he found from BBC News on his phone that the Queen had died.

"When the plane started to descend I saw that my phone lit up. It was a message from Meg: "Call me when you get this."

"I looked at the BBC website. My grandmother had died. My father was King," writes Prince Harry.

This account adds previously unknown detail to the events surrounding the Queen's death last September - and reveals that the news first reached Prince Harry not from his family, but from the online news on his phone, as he arrived on a charter flight from Luton airport.



It might also clarify some confusion on the day of the Queen's death, when it was first thought that Meghan was travelling with Harry, but it later emerged that she wasn't.

Prince William's wife, Catherine, also did not go to Balmoral, the Scottish estate where the Queen had spent her last summer.

In Prince Harry's account, he says his father told him not to bring Meghan with explanations that "didn't make any sense, and actually they were disrespectful. I didn't tolerate it".

"Don't even think about speaking about my wife like that," Prince Harry recalls saying to his father.

"Regretful, he stammered that he simply didn't want it to fill up with people. Nobody's wife was going, not even Kate, he told me, so Meg shouldn't either.

"'Then you should have started with that," says Prince Harry's recollection.

The book, translated from a Spanish edition, reveals details from the prince's final conversation with the late Queen, which he thought about as he travelled up to Balmoral - including a joke about his own thinning hair.

"I spent almost the whole flight looking at the clouds, reliving the last time I'd spoken to my grandmother. We'd been chatting at length four days before.

"We touched on lots of issues. Her health of course, the chaos in Downing Street, the Braemar Games, which she was sorry not to have been able to attend because she wasn't well.

"We also spoke about the devastating drought. Meg and I were staying at Frogmore and the lawn was in a really bad state.

"It's like my head, granny, full of bald spots and brown patches!' She burst out laughing. I told her to take care of herself and that I hoped we'd see each other soon."

But by the time he landed he saw the news about the Queen's death.

"I put on my black tie, got out of the plane under heavy rain and raced up to Balmoral in a borrowed car."

[constancespry]

I just read Harry disclosed in the book that he and Meghan announced her pregnancy at Eugenie’s wedding. That is pretty tacky, to steal the limelight from a bride. 

[no1novice]

Jan 6, 2023 23:50:59 GMT constancespry said:

I just read Harry disclosed in the book that he and Meghan announced her pregnancy at Eugenie’s wedding. That is pretty tacky, to steal the limelight from a bride. 

From the #dailyfail

They chose his cousin Eugenie's Windsor wedding to make the announcement as the wider members of the Royal Family would be in attendance.  

Ahead of the drinks reception, the couple intercepted Charles in his Windsor office and Harry said he was delighted to see his father's 'wide smile' after finding out he was going to be a grandfather for the fourth time.

Following this, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex then headed over to St George's Hall where the drinks reception was being held to tell Prince William.

He echoed their father's sentiment and urged them to immediately tell Kate. The Princess of Wales was across the room speaking with her sister Pippa Middleton, who was expecting her son Arthur at the time. 



They chose his cousin Eugenie's Windsor wedding to make the announcement as the wider members of the Royal Family would be in attendance.  

Ahead of the drinks reception, the couple intercepted Charles in his Windsor office and Harry said he was delighted to see his father's 'wide smile' after finding out he was going to be a grandfather for the fourth time.

Following this, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex then headed over to St George's Hall where the drinks reception was being held to tell Prince William.

He echoed their father's sentiment and urged them to immediately tell Kate. The Princess of Wales was across the room speaking with her sister Pippa Middleton, who was expecting her son Arthur at the time. 







TBH the whole list of controlling bs that they appear to have spouted - Harry can't marry with a beard (QEII said it was ok though) because Bill couldn't; Bill & Cathy allegedly moving the place name at their table; the massive difference in living conditions; Charles telling Harry that there isn't enough money for him to marry (Meghan), when the cheap bastard makes millions from his land holdings & doesn't pay tax.....

[constancespry]

^^ thanks for clarifying. I should have known this was blown out of proportion and twisted, like most of the stories. It was implied that H&M grabbed the spotlight and “announced”, thus pre-emptying the wedding and “making it all about them”. 

[no1novice]

I checked the press announcement & it looks like it was printed on the 15 Oct & the wedding was 12 Oct; it did leak though but that could well be the Petulant Prince being pissed again.

[constancespry]

re. the William-Harry scuffle.

[kittylady]

Jan 6, 2023 2:14:03 GMT trixie said:

ok, I used to PMS pretty bad, and I totally knew I was, but I would probably slap any face that dared to mention it. Then I would stop at the gas station and buy myself a Chunky chocolate bar to make me feel better. I haven't had one of those in years, but apparently I can buy 48 of them from Amazon for $55. That's totally tempting.

Jan 6, 2023 2:21:40 GMT sputnik said:

been there, done that. though my drug of choice was either dark chocolate lindor balls or, if i could find it, that chocolate bar that was basically corn flakes covered in milk chocolate? does anyone remember what that was called? the corn flakes were slightly salty. it was amazing. i think ritter sport makes a similar one but it's not enough corn flakes and too much chocolate whereas the one i'm thinking of had the perfect ratio. i don't know if it existed on this side of the atlantic or only in europe. 

An accurate re-enactment of me during Shark Week:



If I can get hold of it, I'm eating it. And probably crying over it while arguing about it. And looking for the next thing to eat/cry/argue about.

Jan 6, 2023 17:04:05 GMT lindsaywhit said:

Col Kemp, who was sent to Kabul in 2003 to take command of forces in Afghanistan, said the Taliban insurgents killed were bad people and he did not have a problem with Prince Harry revealing his kill number - but took issue with the way Harry suggested Taliban insurgents were seen by the army as "sub-human and just as chess pieces to be knocked over".

He told BBC Breakfast: "I think he's wrong when he says in his book that insurgents were seen just as being virtually unhuman - subhuman perhaps - just as chess pieces to be knocked over.

"That's not the case at all. And it's not the way the British Army trains people as he claims...

"I think that sort of comment that doesn't reflect reality, is misleading and potentially valuable to those people who wish the British forces and British government harm, so I think it was an error of judgement."

Bullshit. Such effing bullshit. How do you think they take 18 year old kids and train them to kill and maim and destroy whatever target they are ordered to? 

My godson, who is my own sons' best friend, shocked and appalled me when he came home after an extended tour in Afghanistan in the Marines. I asked him if he got to know any Afghans and he looked at me like I was insane, then calmly told me how much he hated them all. I must have stuttered out some platitude because he cut me off with a shake of his head, and went on to describe things that made me curl up and die inside. Of course he was, and still is, suffering from PTSD. (Purple Heart from injuries suffered when the jeep he was riding in hit an IED - it killed everyone else.) Ten years later, we still worry about suicide, because he still can go very, very, dark. Because that hatred was trained into him, and it is still breaking him.

Someone very close and very dear to me has seen active service in a conflict and from what they have chosen to share with me over the last 25 or so years is that you can't think of enemy combatants as fellow humans and all nuances that that entails. If you think about it then you're going to end up cracking up or hesitate and end up dead, maybe being the cause of taking some of your mates with you. And there can be an initial euphoria that you got the bastard before they got you - but that doesn't mean that the feeling lasts or that you move on and forget about it. It's always there in some deeply hidden and locked away part of you. You may not feel it twisting within you all the time, but it's still there all the same, waiting for a moment to resurface and fuck you over.  It changes you. I remember running into someone else I'd known as a teen when he was on his first leave home after serving in a war zone. Within a minute of talking to him I just knew he'd killed someone over there. You can tell. Don't ask me how (and I didn't ask him either), you just can. They aren't the same person you chatted to and had a laugh with before they shipped out for their first tour. The men and women we send off to war are not the same people we get back and all the touchy-feely "you'll be doing great things and having great adventures!" recruitment advertisements on the television aren't going to change that.

[Sarzy]