A soldier who attended the same cadet school as Prince Harry gave a very different account of the prince’s quotes in the autobiography What’s Left. According to the British, it is a lie that young soldiers are taught during training to dehumanize enemies.
According to the British vehicle Chron, the military said the process at the cadet school involves classes and texts about the dangers of judging people as good or bad.
According to the newspaper, works by authors such as psychologist Herbert Kelman and anthropologist Claude LéviStrauss are proposed to cadets at the Royal Sandhurst Military Academy (RMAS). In addition to the preservation of dignity and humanity, the books also discuss the perception of what evil would be like in other people.
Harry, who attended RMAS between 2005 and 2006, took part in two tours in Afghanistan. During the second missionary trip to the Middle Eastern country, the Duke of Sussex operated the Appache helicopter gun and a rocket launcher. According to the prince, he killed 25 Afghans.
“Actually, you can’t hurt people by seeing them as people. They were pawns taken off the board, bad guys eliminated before they killed the good guys,” says Harry in What’s Left.
However, the prince’s speech sparked outrage from an RMAS attendant, who demystified the prince’s account.
“The dangers of cognitive distortions have been taught and there has been no suggestion to just ‘change’ people, that’s just wrong,” said the military man, whose identity has not been revealed. “When you no longer see your enemy as yourself, when you dehumanize them, your sense of right and wrong is completely compromised.”
The British press, which reports extensively on the controversy surrounding Harry’s book, criticized the prince’s account, which revealed the number of people he had killed in Afghanistan. The Duke of Sussex, on the other hand, hit back at the reports, saying he did it so veterans would not be ashamed of their experiences.
“Without a doubt, the most dangerous lie they’ve told is that I kind of boasted about the number of people I killed in Afghanistan,” Harry said.
“I chose to share because after nearly two decades of working with veterans around the world, I think the most important thing is to be honest and give others space to share their experiences without shame.”