Any comparison to previous royals serving in the British armed forces, much less the Queen Mother putting up with aerial bombing, is beside the point, since the enemy faced in Afganisistan is of a very different sort even from the Wehrmacht (most German regular army officers and men on the Western fronts would have treated a Prince in uniform very nicely). Not so al Qaeda and the Taliban. Yes, Helmand is a very dangerous place -- and Harry deserves respect for wanting to go there -- but there can be no question that these guys would have concentrated their efforts on knocking off -- or better yet, capturing and holding hostager -- a Prince of the Realm. They would have seen it -- correctly -- as a huge victory. Thus, the "normal" level of danger for British troops deployed with Harry would have risen dramatically.

Hitch notes in passing that John McCain's son is serving in Iraq. It may be no coincidence that we know not where or under what circumstances, nor have there been any front line interviews with him. Like as not, the US military has decided like their British comrades that such a high-profile individual would become a "bullet magnet" for al Qaeda in Iraq.

After all, look at the trouble Islamic terrorists have gone to over the years to find and attack high-profile targets. It's one of many things that makes fighting terrorists very different from warfare against a traditional army.