Never thought I'd write about the Royals...

I saw on the news this morning that Prince Harry was going to be pulled out of Afghanistan. My first thought was, “He’s in Afghanistan?! I thought he was still picking up chicks in Calgary.” Then my second thought was about Michael Moore’s doc, Fahrenheit 9/11. In it he points out that the American Congress (or maybe it was the Senate. Even after watching 7 seasons of West Wing I still don’t know the difference.) decides to go to war, but they don’t have their kids fighting in it. It’s a much easier decision to send other people’s kids off to their death than to send your own. You don’t see the Bush twins joining the reserves, so you have to admit that to have the person 3rd in line for the throne in an active combat zone is pretty damn impressive.

However, as I watched the news this morning, my new found respect for The Royal Family quickly faded when I realized what the story was about: Prince Harry was being pulled out. Now, I didn’t actually watch the whole story, so I immediately assumed it was because The Family requested it, or felt that his life was more important than the other soldiers he’s serving with. I got really bitter about that.

But I was wrong. I just now read the real story and my new found respect for The Royal Family is back in bloom and my dislike of the media is boiling hot. It seems like the British Military made a lot of concessions and agreements with the media to keep that fact that Harry was in Afghanistan a secret. The media knew he was there, and they were asked not to tell. Obviously, it’s a huge security risk to him and everyone around him if the Evil Doers know that he’s there. But then some stupid media outlet published a story about how he was there, effectively putting his life at risk and forcing the military to remove him. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by such a demonstration of wanton disregard for human life, but I am. Clearly, the people who leaked the story knew what the results would be, they just cared more about the circulations boost, about the benefits to them.

I realize the idea of different media groups banning together to keep a secret from the public sounds very Big Brother, but I think in this case I support the censorship. I have this feeling of walking a very fine line, but I think we live mostly in grey areas and this is one of them. It’s not as if the international media banned together and agreed to not tell the public that, say, all of our meat was infected with CJB or something. That would be bad, and I wouldn’t support that. This, however, was a secret meant to protect the safety of a soldier and those working with him. I don’t think it was deceptive and I don’t think – in this case – that the peoples' right to know trumps the soldiers’ right to survive.