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[OttomanScribe]

Tbh, the few soldiers I've known (living in Aldershot there's a few about) have been upstanding and professional, but also incredibly, hair curlingly racist. I think the army creates and fosters a very 'us vs them' mentality, and encourages the kind of dehumanisation that would lead them to that mindset. But I don't think 'taken out of the game' is even particularly offensive - it speaks to a matter of fact reality of the situation these guys are in every day. I'm sure they say a shit ton worse when the BBC aren't there.

Thankfully we have other evidence of his mind numbing racism to corroborate. Oh yeah, some of them were racist as all heck. However I was actually pretty impressed that those thinking soldiers I met, be they special forces or officer types, were pretty decent. Though ignorant (I found out that a guy I was talking to who was in army intelligence didn't know about the 'Taliban as Pashtun nationalists' theory... sigh)

I don't think your football analogy holds up though. Maybe a darts player and thowing knives into skulls or something. But I'm betting being good at games can make you a better pilot, tactician and maybe even marksman (but guns vs controllers don't really map out properly). We shouldn't be criticising it, we should (as gamers) be praising the real world applications of our hobby.

Maybe it is just that we differ in the level of comfort with our hobby being likened to actual killing of people. If the guy who killed those kids in a drone strike was at any point thinking it was a computer game, I am not okay with that. It is messed up.

 

[SteveWD40]

I think the army creates and fosters a very 'us vs them' mentality, and encourages the kind of dehumanisation that would lead them to that mindset.

It does indeed, it has to, that's how you create Soldiers right or wrong.

 

[Suairyu]

I'm not going to lie - all of this Prince Harry in Afghanistan stuff comes across like a massive PR stunt coordinated by the Royal Family. Harry shrugs off the press and looks cool doing cool shit all while creating support for Britain's presence in the region.

This was a 'gift' to the press in exchange for them not reporting on or speculating about his deployment.

A similar arrangement was struck last time but it leaked anyway.

Neither Harry nor the Royal Army are actually happy about having to let the press on a military base because of his status, but that's the arrangement that had to be made to avoid Harry's high profile endangering his fellow soldiers. It's a necessary evil.

 

[Joel Was Right]

The Taliban say Prince Harry's XBOX comments about the Afghan war comes from a probable 'mental problem'

http://aje.me/10nmOaf

 

[BertramCooper]

Maybe you should take another look at the oath.

Also Australia didn't vote to keep the monarchy - it was a vote to become a republic with the parliament selecting a president. Getting rid of them actually had a decent level of support it was just good work by the monarchists in engineering a situation where we had to vote on an outcome nobody wanted (we wouldn't be able to pick our head of state).

Didn't Gillard say a couple of years ago that she wants Australia to ditch the monarchy once Elizabeth dies?

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

The Taliban say Prince Harry's XBOX comments about the Afghan war comes from a probable 'mental problem'

http://aje.me/10nmOaf

Well, I think you need to have a mental problem to stone women to death, so it's all relative, I guess.