UK defense secretary criticizes Prince Harry for ‘boasting’ about Taliban deaths

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said he disagrees with the Duke of Sussex’s decision to reveal how many Taliban fighters he killed while serving in the British Army in Afghanistan, saying “boasting about tallies” lets down others in the armed forces

Prince Harry faced criticism last month from some British security and military figures, as well as the Taliban itself, after he claimed in his autobiography “Spare” that he had killed 25 of the insurgent group’s fighters.

“So, my number: Twenty-five. It wasn’t a number that gave me any satisfaction. But neither was it a number that made me feel ashamed,” Harry wrote.

Wallace told British radio station LBC Thursday that “every veteran makes their own choices about what they want to talk about,” but “the armed forces is not about a tally.”

A former soldier himself, Wallace said that “boasting about tallies, or talking about tallies … distorts the fact that the army is a team game,” with the infantry supported by hundreds of people, such as those in the Royal Logistic Corps and in headquarters.

“It’s not about who can shoot the most or who doesn’t shoot the most,” Wallace added. “It’s my personal view that if you start talking about who did what, you’re actually letting down all those other people because you’re not a better person because you did and they didn’t.”