As Prince Harry leaves California for UK visit, a military role awaits

Prince Harry evidently enjoys life in California, but the United Kingdom and its wayward royal son need each other.The UK badly needs to rebuild its military capabilities, while Harry needs a purpose to re-energize his life.

The British political class is incapable of leading a Churchillian defense renaissance, but Harry is uniquely suited to the role.After more than a half-decade of painful estrangement, why not try a win-win reconciliation?The rift between Harry and his family and country opened in 2018, when he married American actress Meghan Markle, followed by the couple’s dramatic “Megxit” to Southern California.

The couple subsequently made controversial public claims about the royal family, and attracted considerable invective in the media and influencer worlds. Harry is now said to be living a “rather pointless existence” and is “desperately lonely” and “not really doing anything in America.”While their name recognition remains high, public approval toward both has tanked in Britain.Aside from King Charles’ disgraced brother Andrew, they are the most disliked members of the royal family.Meanwhile, Britain is struggling to adjust to a new and dangerous world with a “hollowed out” military and a shaky “special relationship” with the United States.

The US-Iran conflict has further exposed Britain’s military incapacities for the world to see.Yet the UK is not facing up to the challenge.Spending money on anything beyond the National Health Service, social welfare programs and pensions has become deeply fraught politically.

While the Labour government has promised to increase defense spending, any new money could prove too little and too late.Britain needs to rearm now – not in the next parliament or some other fantasy future in which difficult choices will finally be made.President Donald Trump may not be “right about everything,” but he was unquestionably correct when he argued from the start ...