Harry Getting Ready for Iraq?

It's just been reported that 2nd Lieutenant Harry will be receiving special pre-deployment training this week. This will include lessons in Arabic and he will be undergoing the two-day training with other members of his Blues and Royals regiment who have already been chosen to serve in Iraq starting in April. It will be administered by the Operational Training and Advisory Group (OPTAG) which is apparently only given to troops heading for the war zone.
An Army source said: "This training is exclusively for troops given the green light for Iraq. They don't waste time, money and manpower on anyone else. If a soldier's in OPTAG training for Iraq then he's going, simple as that...It's a final phase of training prior to deployment. The next step is a dress rehearsal exercise carried out by the entire brigade over several days in the UK. "Once that's complete they're off to do the business."

While Clarence House has declared that "Prince Harry is undergoing this training but no final decision has been made on whether he will be deployed", it now looks likely that he is set to follow in the footsteps of his uncle Prince Andrew, who served in the 1982 Falklands War while flying Sea King helicopters in risky battle missions.

As part of the build-up to war Harry will also spend a week on exercise with up to 1,000 other men on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, next month. Harry will don a special laser suit that will reveal if he has been "shot" in the hi-tech war games.
Tellingly, Prince William, who is also part of the Blues and Royals but junior to Harry in terms of training, will NOT take part in the exercises or the OPTAG lectures. Instead, he will embark on a troop leader's course in Bovington, Dorset, for five months starting from March.
As second-in-line to the throne he cannot serve in a war zone. It has also been confirmed he will quit the army after a year before spending time with the RAF and Navy, combined with royal duties.