https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2007-02-23/449955/

Those Crazy Brits

By Richard Whittaker, February 23, 2007, 11:30am, Newsdesk

In a baffling week for war-watchers, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the UK will be withdrawing 1,600 of its 7,100 troops from Iraq. At the same time, Prince Harry is being sent out to fight there. As the experts say, huh?

Blair, unlike President George Bush, seems to have worked out that no one in the UK backs the war in Iraq. His Labor Party is facing a vicious election in the next year, and even though he's standing down from Parliament, the party may lose because of his inheritance. So, time for a quick policy switch.

The British Army has been picking up a lot of slack in Afghanistan and needs 1,000 more troops there - troops to be freed up from Iraq. There's still a sliver of support for that war, so he's trying to salvage the last of his reputation. After all, he's still young, and it's speculated he'd like to be either European Union president or UN secretary general.

So if the British Army is pulling out of Iraq, why is the man third in line to the throne being sent out to the front line?

Prince Harry's regiment, the Household Cavalry, will be doing reconnaissance work in Iraq, and Harry demanded he be allowed to go with them.

Why would he do that? Well, it's traditional for the second son of the royal family to go into the military. His uncle, Prince Andrew (the one that married Fergie – not the Fergie from Black Eyed Peas, the other one), flew helicopters during the Falklands war. These were real front-line missions, like using his chopper as a decoy for missiles.

Like Andrew, Harry knows the odds of him ever being king are long to none (his grandma, the queen, doesn't look like she'll ever die, and then there's still his dad and older brother to get through). The last thing anyone remembers about Andy is his moment of wartime glory. And Harry has never come across as very bright.

There's a lot of speculation that he'll just become a bullet-magnet, as every radical in the region tries to take his head or hold him hostage. Elements of the elite SAS may have to become his bodyguards.

So how did he get to go? Well, his grandma is commander-in-chief of the army.