Taliban: Prince Harry’s mental for comparing games to war

Army captain thinks war is like a PlayStation game

The Taliban is not exactly known for saying things Western gamers might nod their head in agreement with, but a fair few are siding with the Islamic fundamentalist movement against Britain’s own Prince Harry. The Prince recently compared his service in Afghanistan to a videogame — something the Taliban claims is evidence of mental illness. 

Harry said in a recent interview that using an Apache attack helicopter’s weapons systems were a “joy” because he loves playing Xbox and PlayStation games. The rather tasteless comment was followed with, “… so with my thumbs I like to think I’m probably quite useful — if you ask the guys I thrash them at FIFA the whole time.”

It’s a weird analogy when you consider that in real-life war, you don’t have to pay Electronic Arts money to obtain your guns. 

The Taliban, probably upset at being the CPU-controlled opponents in this particularly analogy, expressed its anger at the comments, and took a potshot at Air Corps captain’s mental health by way of revenge. 

“There are 49 countries with their powerful military failing in the fight against the mujahideen, and now this prince comes and compares this war with his games, PlayStation or whatever he calls it,” stated a Taliban rep. “We don’t take his comments very seriously, as we have all seen and heard that many foreign soldiers, occupiers who come to Afghanistan, develop some kind of mental problems on their way out.”

Being called mental by the Taliban probably doesn’t mean much, but even so, comparing a lethal attack helicopter to the “joy” of a videogame probably isn’t the best thing to say about a situation where people tend to die quite a bit. It’s probably not a lot of fun for the people getting shot at — on both sides, and whether they’re in the army or not.

Then again, I wasn’t sold on the iPad until I got one. Maybe Harry’s just ahead of the curve on the latest craze!

Prince Harry Compares War to PlayStation, and Taliban Are Not Amused [New York Times]