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March 06, 2008
Noblesse oblige
Erez Eshel asks: How can a prime minister send men to battle when his own sons do not serve in IDF? By contrast, the royal family.
Last week we heard about Prince Harry’s military service in Afghanistan. The prince was sent to one of the most dangerous fronts on behalf of Her Majesty. The royal family knows that the king’s blood, even if it is blue, is no different than the blood of its other subjects.
Military service at the front is part of the ancient tradition of a nation that has the Shakespearean image of Henry V entrenched in its soul. The king fights shoulder to shoulder with his subjects on the battlefield without a crown on his head. The citizens fight alongside the king, no just for him.
It is hard to ignore the history of a great nation that for hundreds of years now has been sending the sons of its elite in general, and members of the royal family in particular, to the front. In the past 1,000 years, Britain won in practice every war where it fought for its existence. The mark it left has enabled it to achieve greatness and glory.
Military service at the front is part of the ancient tradition of a nation that has the Shakespearean image of Henry V entrenched in its soul. The king fights shoulder to shoulder with his subjects on the battlefield without a crown on his head. The citizens fight alongside the king, no just for him.
It is hard to ignore the history of a great nation that for hundreds of years now has been sending the sons of its elite in general, and members of the royal family in particular, to the front. In the past 1,000 years, Britain won in practice every war where it fought for its existence. The mark it left has enabled it to achieve greatness and glory.
Related: John McCain.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 6, 2008 08:27 AM
