British Minister of Defense Criticizes Prince Harry for Revealing Details of the Number of Taliban He Killed in Afghanistan

Prince Harry. (Wikimedia Commons/Sgt. Laura Buchta)

JAKARTA - British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace on Thursday said Prince Harry had disappointed military personnel, by 'boasting' about the number of people he killed in Afghanistan.

Minister Wallace said success in the armed forces was not measured by "who fired the most shots".

A former captain in the Scots Guards, Minister Wallace criticized Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, for parts of his memoir entitled 'Spare', which reveal details of his duties in Afghanistan.

"The armed forces are not about counting," said Minister Wallace, quoted by The National News February 24.

"Frankly, I think bragging about counting or talking about counting ... distorts the fact that the army is teamwork," he said.

Minister Wallace further said the military is a "team company" and everyone who fights is supported by "hundreds of people behind him".

"If you start talking about who did what, what you're really doing is letting everyone else down, because you're not a better person because you did it and they didn't."

Minister Wallace said every military veteran should "make their own choice about what they want to talk about".

He also said a person in the armed forces was not measured by "who shot the most or who did not shoot the most".

The Duke of Sussex writes in his book that he managed to kill 25 Taliban soldiers. He also described how his fighter's nose camera recorded the mission, including the killing of the Taliban.

He regards the rebels as "chess pieces removed from the chessboard", saying soldiers trained him to think it was impossible to kill someone "if you look at them as human beings".

Not only that, Prince Harry also wrote that most of the soldiers did not know exactly how many murders they had committed.

"In combat conditions, you often fire indiscriminately," he wrote.

But "in the era of Apaches and laptops", he can say "exactly how many enemy combatants I have killed. And for me, it's important not to be afraid of that number.

"So my number is 25. It's not a number I'm satisfied with, but it's not something I'm ashamed of either," said Prince Harry.

Separately, senior officers told The National News, Prince Harry "betrayed the British Army's combat ethos".

"Boasting about how many enemy soldiers you can kill is simply not a British thing to do," said a senior officer.

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood said the Duke of Sussex's recognition could pose a security risk to the Invictus Games founded and promoted by Prince Harry.

Ellwood, a senior MP and chair of the Parliamentary Defense Committee said the disclosures in Harry's memoir were "inaccurate".