Prince Harry's War

Alas poor Harry. whatever you think about the wisdom of mounting a complex operation to deploy one inexperienced 23-year-old soldier to the frontline of a controversial war; whether your instincts are royalist or republican; if you are disturbed by the spectacle of Britain's usually tenacious media bowing to the wishes of palace, military and government, and suppressing a story — no matter what your response to the Afghanistan adventuring of Britain's warrior prince, it's hard not to feel sorry for him.

This is a boy born to redundancy, a second son in a tradition that regards the eldest child as heir and his younger sibling as "the spare", and in an age that abrasively questions the point of the monarchy while devouring reports of its activities. Frequently derided as a nightclubbing wastrel before his 10-week stint in Helmand province, the prince now finds himself lionized by many of the same voices that used to criticize him. "I don't want to sit around Windsor, because I generally don't like England that much and it's nice to be away from all the press and the papers," he said, sadly contemplating his homeward journey.

Forget the banner headlines about Harry's secret deployment or the news blackout that made it possible until a U.S. website revealed his whereabouts. The really big news is that the third in line to Britain's throne says he doesn't like his own country that much. Yet look at the pictures of the prince on active service, and it's easy to see why Harry might prefer his hard army billet to the comforts of a palace bed. Dressed in camouflage, his pale skin burned as ruddy as his hair, the prince for the first time in his life was almost invisible, blending into the bleak desert landscape with its rich palette of colors — any shade, as long as it's dusty red. To the watching enemy — he calls them "Terry Taliban" — he was indistinguishable from the rest of the troops.

Like Audrey Hepburn on the back of Gregory Peck's Vespa in Roman Holiday, Harry has enjoyed a whistle-stop tour of how commoners live — and die. He shared his flight back to England with two critically wounded soldiers. He admits he may be "a bullet magnet," a prize scalp for enemy forces and terrorists. Yet Harry has tasted something akin to ordinary life and he's eager for more. "It's bizarre," he mused in an interview recorded during his tour of duty. "I'm out here now, haven't really had a shower for four days, haven't washed my clothes for a week and everything feels completely normal." He spoke of how fun it was to spend time with a "bunch of normal guys," and, revealingly, commented wistfully, "I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get."

Given the unprecedented military and media operation needed to create this simulacrum of normality, the prince's assessment was just about right. The Windsors don't do normal. Their function is symbolic; the most popular and effective member of the family, the Queen, is remote, dare one say regal, despite her relentless diary of public engagements. It was Harry's mother Diana, a royal-by-marriage, who engaged with ordinary people in emotionally intelligent ways and encouraged her sons to strive for a kind of über-normality. Yet as she discovered, it's hard to keep it real in the parallel universe that her former in-laws inhabit. Their palaces are packed with treasures, and swarm with valets and equerries, butlers and footmen; yet it's anything but a luxurious existence. Royal quarters are surprisingly spartan; there's no privacy, but little meaningful human contact. "People say to me, 'Would you like to swap your life with me for 24 hours? Your life must be very strange.' But of course I have not experienced any other life. It's not strange to me." That's Harry's uncle Prince Andrew, in a 2006 interview for TIME.

Like Harry, Andrew is a second son, born to duty but without a purpose. Like Harry, he saw active service, back in 1982 in the Falklands. Like many family members, he's wont to express opinions at odds with wider public opinion (I once heard Andrew say that American culture has made no impact on Britain). Despite a long naval career and his more recent efforts as Britain's special representative for trade and investment, he has never quite shaken off his reputation as a playboy prince. The same fate threatened Harry until his star turn in the theater of war recast him as a hero and champion recruiter for Britain's armed forces. Just a few nights on the tiles could dent his new-minted image. It would be normal behavior for any young soldier on R&R, but normality isn't and can never be the province of princes.