Royalty an achilles heel? The English Royal family were leading the crusades against islam for over 250 years - longer than the USA has existed. And by lead, I mean with a King on a horse and sword in hand at the front of his army charging the enemy, not hiding in a bunker giving orders! Every male member of the royal family has served in the forces including Charles who signed on in 1969, gained his wings, served on a missile destroyer and two frigates, then flew commando missions from HMS Hermes and finally went on to command HMS Bronington. His father, Prince Philip was at the sharp end of the Allied invasion of Sicily on HMS Wallace and then fought his way out of the Yangtse on HMS Amethyst in 1949 with the whole communist army firing at them. Charles' younger brother Prince Andrew gained a green beret in the Royal Marines and went on to use his helicopter as a live exocet missile decoy in the Falklands war to protect his ship from incoming fire at huge personal risk. Both his sons are attending sandhurst and will be joining front-line regiments. The whole of the Royal family stayed in Buckingham Palace during WW2 to suffer the dangers alongside their people. Before you criticise the Royal family, ask yourself how many Presidents have put their country before their own and their families personal safety as our monarchy have done for a thousand years.
Bump ya, Brit.
Leni
That's fair. You are right. I am sure that Charles is a better action man than he is a thinking man. When he tries to think, he gets it so wrong that he ends up sounding like a detached academic. Wish he had stuck with organic gardening as a theme vs. the glory of Islam.
Quite a few. Of course, they weren't Presidents yet, but then that happens when you have to get elected.
The relevant comparison is to the PMs.
monarchy is just another form of tyranny
JMHO
It's good day when one learns something new. Thank you for your post.
Whew man, cool off.
Nobody is attacking the Brits. Criticizing the titular head of state is no more an attack on Britain than critcizing Bush is an attack on America.
Having said that, and originally having been critical of Bowles, taking another look at her, she looks like a real "hot" looking lady, comments here to the contrary notwithstanding. I'm really sorry about Charles and Diana and what happened there. Living your life in a fishbowl can't be a pleasant experience for anyone and something should be done to control the press and those ghouls called the Paparazzi.
I know the British Royal Family has an outstanding history of fighting the Muslims. So do most of the royal families in western Europe. Which makes it all the more painful when some of their modern descendents praise Islam or offer excuses for its threatening behavior.
America owes a great debt of gratitude to Britain. If there were no Britain, there would have been no America. Not without meaning has the American Revolution been called the Brothers' War. The concepts of Freedom, Republican Government, trial by jury, representative government, taxation by approval of elected officials, etc, all valued american rights, have their roots in English history.
Excluding the unfortunate occurances of 1776 and 1812, Britain and America are joined by strong cultural and historical ties which transcend any temproary differences.
Let's see if I can set you straight. I'm not sure if you want me to site American Presidents who's sons served in war while they were in office, or presidents who themselves fought in war while in office (there aren't any of those but I'd be surprised if there were any British Monarchs who did so since Richard the Lionhearted), or Presidents with combat experience, or what. Well, here goes.
American Presidents in combat include George Washington (ever heard of him- he served in two wars), James Monroe, Andrew Jackson (defeated the British at New Orleans), William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor (40 years in the Army), Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln served in the Black Hawk War but did not face combat, U.S Grant (two wars), Rutherford B. Hayes was wounded in the Civil War, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt became famous charging up San Juan Hill in the Spanish American War for which he was posthumously awarded the congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration; as of 2005 he is the only President to have received the award, Harry Truman was an artillery officer in WWI and saw action in the Vosges, Saint Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns, Dwight Eisenhower never saw action but did a little bit of work in WWII, JFK was nearly killed in the Pacific, LBJ won a Silver Star in the South Pacific, Richard Nixon did not see combat was served in the Pacific, Jimmy Carter was in the Navy, and George Herbert Walker Bush was a Navy pilot who was shot down and nearly killed also.
As for their offspring, Robert Todd Lincoln served on Grant's staff.
Teddy Roosevelt also had several sons in the millitary. Archie was said to be "an absolutely selfless gladiator who insisted on being the first to smell the enemy's bad breath, regardless of the risk." During World War I Kermit was lightly reprimanded while fighting with the British in the Middle East. Some victories, said Kermit's British colonel, could very well be hand without full frontal assaults into the gaping mouths of enemy guns. His brother Quentin was killed. Just three days before Quentin's death in 1918, the New York Sun congratulated him editorially for "attacking three enemy airplanes single-handed and shooting one of them down."
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr, was the only general to land with the first wave on Utah Beach. He was played by Henry Fonda in the movie "the Longest Day".
Is that enough or shall I go on?