I THINK it's more than likely that Prince Harry will now have to be kept away from the front line. He will inevitably be an attractive target for the Taleban.
But he will only be a target if they know where he is. The army can either bring him home or put him in a place where he is in less danger.
They have been put in the position where if something were to happen – with the gaffe having been blown –
they are going to look really stupid. So I would think it would make sense to withdraw Harry from frontline duties.
However, it is extremely difficult to identify someone when they are wearing full uniform, including helmet, and camouflage.
But the danger would be if the Taleban were to discover where he is operating, which unit or sub-unit he is with. That would make not just him but the whole unit a target.
He has been engaged in very responsible, and dangerous, duties. There's no doubt about that.
But these jobs are normal for a young officer in the army. Tracking, monitoring, getting details to aircraft – it's what they're expected to do.
I'm quite sure he would not be put in this position if he wasn't good enough. There's no room for passengers. So I'm perfectly confident that he is a capable young soldier.
The army has got to balance the needs of the service and the fact this young man is a member of the Royal Family, but it has also got to consider his own individual needs.
Every person who joins the infantry wants to do their job. Not everybody wants to go to war, but the ultimate function of a soldier is to fight, and he quite naturally wants to do that.
If the army can reconcile that with these other concerns, as it has done for the past several weeks, then I don't see a problem with him being sent to Afghanistan in the first place.
And he won't be out there fighting for Queen and country, or democracy, or anything like that. He'll be doing it for his mates. At the end of the day, that's what keeps people going out there. You do it for your friends and colleagues around you.
• Ian Gardiner is a former brigadier in the Royal Marines who fought in Oman and the Falkland Islands.
The full article contains 410 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
