Okay, I'm feeling bad about Harry's being outed now.

I kind of made light of his public outing by the Australian mag NewIdea, the German Bild and most of all, the Drudge Report, saying the whole thing had to have been planned by the British MOD and Buckingham Palace.

Clearly it wasn't. And I hate when I get all cynical.

I don't know, it was like I got all caught up in the moment or something. Just the thought of Prince Harry's presence in the Helmand province right under the noses of those nuts made me absolutely giddy. I talked about the boost Harry's service was giving to a war weary public and then proceeded to ride that same wave of euphoria, ending up ascribing my own silly motives to the situation.

I must admit that I truly relished the idea of the Prince giving them the big "take that, you buggers" finger and looking pretty fine doing it.

The pictures, the coverage, and yes, the video, were so extensive and exciting to read, but clearly I should have known that the British media's news embargo came at a price, and that price was access. No doubt, all of the coverage had long been in the media can, just waiting for Prince Harry's deployment to end. Only the end should have been in six months time not 10 weeks and I should have realized that. Instead, I got carried along on a wave of wiseass feeling and was downright pretty damn cavalier about it all.

I foolishly treated the whole thing like a game.

A young man's service to his country is not a game.

I'm sorry your cover got blown, Prince and I pray for your continued safety. If something were to happen to you now I would feel absolutely terrible.

I was even sorrier when I heard this, because it is going to tick off the evildoers even more.

"He was based at a former madrasah – an Islamic school – with a Gurkha regiment and his role involved calling up allied air cover in support of ground forces and going out on foot patrols."

This is not good.
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