The only reason for sending Prince Harry into battle in Iraq is that he very much wants to go, just as the only reason for sending women into the frontline is that they also very much want to go. In both cases it is an insufficient reason for doing something which defies common sense.
Sentiment is a bad guide. What matters is not what is best for brave young princes or brave young women but what is best for the armed forces. As it is, once again the public interest has been sacrificed to individual human rights.
In addition, in Prince Harry's case one wonders whether the monarchy will benefit from being personally associated with a deeply unpopular war that may well end in national humiliation. That the Government wants to inject a little glamour into this doomed operation is understandable, but political
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expediency is an even worse guide in such matters than sentimentality.
As for the Army top brass going along with Prince Harry's aspirations, this too deepens concern - following so soon after the Admiralty's Gulf fiasco - about the present Ministry of Defence, which is beginning to seem no more 'fit for purpose' than the Home Office.
All minds should be concentrated on getting our soldiers safely out. To add Prince Harry to that number is as if the Victorian War Office had sent out a royal prince to take part in the Charge of the Light Brigade.
In the longer term, it would be a good idea to question whether the Royal Family's close connection with the armed services is any longer appropriate; when increasingly they will be having to serve, in effect, as American mercenaries - taking not the Queen's, but Uncle Sam's shilling. 
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