How Prince Harry's Swipe at Media Over Afghan Kills Compares to Reporting

Prince Harry told The Late Show the "most dangerous lie" the media have told is that "I somehow boasted about the number of people I killed in Afghanistan" putting his security at risk.

The prince got a rousing reception when he walked on set for an interview with Stephen Colbert, with the audience chanting his name and cheering.

The pair discussed palace leaks and also the media response to Spare, which talked about the number of people he killed in Afghanistan.

After a section of his book leaked, there was a backlash from senior ex-British military figures and even the Taliban themselves, though Harry accused the media of lies.

Harry was at points accused of boasting and that does jar with the full account in Spare. However, the duke does not engage with the Taliban response which focused instead on his statement that he saw its soldiers not as people but as chess pieces.

What Prince Harry Told Stephen Colbert About His Security

Harry said: "Look, I'm not going to lie, the last few days have been hurtful and challenging. Not being able to do anything about those leaks that you refer to.

"Without doubt, the most dangerous lie that they have told, is that I somehow boasted about the number of people I killed in Afghanistan."

The duke said that "if I heard anyone boasting about that kind of thing I would be angry" and added that it was "very disturbing that they can get away with it."

Harry said: "That's dangerous. And my words are not dangerous but the spin of my words are dangerous to my family." When Colbert suggested he was referring to his security he nodded and said: "And that is a choice they've made."

What Prince Harry Said About His Afghanistan Kills

Spare reads: "I could always say precisely how many enemy combatants I'd killed. And I felt it vital never to shy away from that number.

"Among the many things I learned in the Army, accountability was near the top of
the list.

"So, my number: Twenty-five. It wasn't a number that gave me any satisfaction. But neither was it a number that made me feel ashamed. Naturally, I'd have preferred not to have that number on my military CV, on my mind, but by the same token I'd have preferred to live in a world in which there was no Taliban, a world without war.

"Even for an occasional practitioner of magical thinking like me, however, some realities just can't be changed.

"While in the heat and fog of combat, I didn't think of those twenty-five as
people. You can't kill people if you think of them as people.

"You can't really harm people if you think of them as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods. I'd been trained to 'other-ize' them, trained well.

"On some level I recognized this learned detachment as problematic. But I also saw it as an unavoidable part of soldiering. Another reality that couldn't be changed."

Reaction to Prince Harry's Comments on Afghanistan War

The Taliban reaction is perhaps the most significant when viewed through the lens of Prince Harry's security since the logic behind the danger is that Taliban members or sympathizers might seek revenge.

The Taliban statement read: "Mr. Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return.

"Among the killers of Afghans, not many have your decency to reveal their conscience and confess to their war crimes."

He added: "The truth is what you've said; Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that 'game' of white & black 'square.'

"I don't expect that the [International Criminal Court] will summon you or the human rights activists will condemn you, because they are deaf and blind for you. But hopefully these atrocities will be remembered in the history of humanity."

Elsewhere, Lord Alan West, former head of the Royal Navy, told the Sunday Mirror he felt Prince Harry's own tournament for forces personnel, the Invictus Games, might be at increased risk as a result of Spare.

He said: "The Invictus Games is very much labeled to him and so I would have thought the threat level there will definitely be higher.

"There will be serious security issues because of what he said. Measures will have to be put in place to protect the veterans.

"And there will be people who, given half the chance, will want to do something."

What the Media Said About Harry and Afghanistan

Harry does not specify which outlets or stories he believes misrepresented his words as a boast.

The earliest online stories in the British media did not appear to reference him boasting though later reaction pieces did.

The quotes first emerged on January 5, when the book had accidentally gone on sale early in Spain.

The Sun stated that it was the first to obtain a copy and carried the headline: "HARRY IN BATTLE Harry reveals he killed 25 in Afghanistan and says he wanted 'baddies eliminated before they could kill goodies' in bio."

The article, published Thursday, January 5, read: "Writing in his autobiography Spare, the Duke of Sussex says he is neither proud nor ashamed of 'taking human lives' as it was simply his job as a solider."

The same day, the Daily Mail online ran the headline: "Harry reveals he killed 25 Taliban fighters: Prince's astonishing revelation as he describes how—during his second tour of duty in Afghanistan—he took out insurgents but saw them as 'chess pieces taken off the board', not 'people'."

The article did not use the term "boast" though later articles in the British media did, including one in the Daily Mirror published online late in the evening on January 6.

Its headline read: "Army fury at Prince Harry 'kills' boast as colonel says he 'turned against other family'."

In short, Prince Harry may have a legitimate case in relation to some of the reporting of his comments in Britain, however, the blunt statement that the danger arises out of the boasting allegation is not borne out in the Taliban reaction.

If the threat comes from the Taliban and its supporters, then the Interior Minister's multiple references to chess suggest any anger caused may in fact have come from Harry's account of how he had to stop himself viewing those he killed as people.

Many may sympathize with Harry's description of his experience but the sympathy of people in the West does not make the Taliban and its sympathizers less likely to target him.