I find it interesting that it's just assumed that it was the monarchy pulling strings for him. I agree with Fro: this isn't the first time royalty has been in a position to go to war, so why is it assumed that the royals stopped him from going?
As far as I'm concerned it was more the government than anything: there would have been an absolute ****storm if Harry was captured and it would have been very easy to point fingers at 10 Downing Street. Blair has already been screwed 'royally' (no pun intended) by the war and I think this is just more arse covering that we've all come to expect from politicians.
I don't consider myself a monarchist by any stretch of the imagination but I do believe that the Windsors have a reason to be loyal to Britain, obviously, and I do not believe that they would try and pull Harry out. What I think I'm trying to say is that they understand that sometimes they need to lead and show that they are willing to protect the country over themselves.
Not that they should be in Iraq in the first place 🙂