Naive Harry should wise up - war is not a game

It all sounded like a game.

Shooting insurgents from the regal heights of his Apache helicopter because, as he explained with childlike simplicity, you have to ''take a life to save a life."

The Apache cockpit Iraq video released by Wikileaks was also like a game as the pilots callously joked about their victims. Yet the murders were all too real.

A group of innocent people, including two reporters and two children, were torn apart and the pilot described the scene as "nice."

War is not nice. War is not a game. War is neither honourable nor glorious.

War is the highest form of terrorism.

I am not angry at Prince Harry's naive view of the world because that is expected.

I am angry at the mainstream media and their failure to investigate the assumptions and propaganda that lead us into conflicts. Despite a history of lies by political and military leaders the media promotes the ridiculous claim that we are fighting for democracy.

The small and select group of embedded media reporting on Prince Harry's second tour of duty was little more than propaganda for the royal institution, the military and the idea that war is a fight between good and evil.

It was certainly not about truth or the horror of war.

David Walden

Newcastle