Yeah, I think the analogy with a consul or ambassador is a good one - he’s no better than any other soldier, it’s just that he and his family are taken as being representatives of our country.
Moderator’s Warning: Lust4Life, you’re out of line for this forum. Cool it down or take it to the Pit.
The Royals are the Brits Kennedys(or vice versa). What would we do if a Kennedy (gasp!) was kidnapped by these scoundrels? Not Ted, the head Kennedy, mind you, but one of the lesser Kennedys. Like, say, Robert Kennedy Jr, a head Kennedy in waiting. One of two situations would occur. 1) I agree that we would not capitulate - publicly. But we might meet with them - privately. And do some real Moslem pleasing stuff, like, set a timetable for withdrawal-privately mind you. We might intentionally let our guard down and let some things happen to make them look good, etc. 2) In the number two scenario, we would drop everything and every troop in the army, navy airforce and marines would pile into the middle east and go house to house, cave to cave, searching. The democrats would stop their whining about the war and the war on terror and they would jump right into the effort feet first. Too much moving and shaking reaction for a 3rd in line for the throne British Royal? Maybe so. But if he were a Kennedy . . . .
Sorry MOD I wasn’t actually targeting posters but people IRL obviously I didn’t make that clear enough which is why I was surprised at one posters response.
So for anyone reading this my post was not about any Doper.
Righto.
Attacking a member of the royal family serving in the armed forces is like attacking anyone else in the armed forces. No better and no worse and certainly no more deserving of a different response than any other soldier’s kidnap or death should be.
As a former soldier would you not be offended if more effort went into rescuing or “avenging the death” of a royal in uniform than any other soldier you stood alongside?
Thanks for the link to my earlier thread. Note my prediction in post 48, which wasn’t far off the mark.
To answer the question here, I’d agree with Little Nemo.
No as a proffessional I wouldn’t,the persons status temporary or otherwise alters my perception of the killing or kidnap.Just as I am saddend by any ex/colleagues death I am more outraged by the deliberate killing of civilians as part of a conflict.
Say I went to school with Bill Bloggs,he’s a loathsome little shit and I cant stand him.
We leave school and he gets elected to Parliament for the political party that I’m against and I totally disagree with all of his policies and he is still a little shit
Though married he is on holiday with his mistress and though not on official bussinesshe’s saying that it is a fact finding tour and claiming off of expenses for it .
While on holiday he gets murdered by terrorists.
Now H.M.G pulls out all the stops and puts every available resource into hunting the baddies down,do I feel aggrieved at all this effort being put into avenging the death of someone that I loathe and despise?
The answer is no,Bill Bloggs wasn’t murdered for being Bill Bloggs but for being a perceived reperesentative of Great Britain.
When the bad guys do something to harm Britain then they are in effect trying to harm me,Britain feeds,protects and educates me and my family and Britain protects my way of life.
Looking from the other perspective do you seriously think that if terrorists whacked him they’d just report it as "Oh we killed another junior officer"or do you think that they would be trumpeting it worldwide that they’d killed a member of the Royal Family,a member of Britains top establishment,that Britain was so inadequate against the courageous freedom fighters that they cant even protect their most sensitive targets?
That Allah must be giving his blessing to the Talibans endeavours to cause such a thing to happen?
Do you think terrorist recruitment would go up or down?
Do you think terrorist morale would go up or down?
Do you think terrorist funding would go up or down?
And in the long run as a result of this would the number of British soldiers on active service AND civilians at home in the U.K. killed by Islamists go up or down ?
In a perfect world I’d say let him go out and take his chances along with the rest of us and I think that he’d be quite happy to do that himself.
But unfortunately we dont live in a perfect world.
And having been slapped by the Mods inadvertently can I just say that if there is a Doper called Bill Bloggs that I dont know about,my example was NOT ABOUT YOU,it was a made up name and I apologise most profusely for any hurt feelings experienced by you when reading this post.