NOT every mother is the Queen, but every mother regards her son as a prince who deserves to be protected.

Some princes, though, are clearly less expendable than others. And so Prince Harry will not go to Iraq while thousands of other mothers' sons will.

He will not go because of "specific threats" against him. Yet every British soldier is specifically targeted every day by the roadside explosive devices that are left for them. If the country is too dangerous for Prince Harry, then it must be too dangerous for them all.

We do not blame the Royal family in this, and we certainly do not blame Prince Harry. His nightclubbing antics are not attractive, but he has worked his backside off - in his own memorable phrase - to advance his career and to earn the respect of his fellow soldiers. He must be truly disappointed.

He must be wondering why he bothered to do all that training. He must be wondering how he will ever look his colleagues in the eye again. He must be asking himself what useful future he has either in the Army or in civvy street. It's enough to make the most well-balanced of young men go on a bender.

This is a situation that should never have been allowed to develop. The least clever Army strategist should have worked out years ago that if you put a prince at the frontline - be that frontline in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq - he will become a target. This has been the way of battles for centuries. Harry should never have been allowed to embark upon this career path.

Yesterday's decision must damage morale among the soldiers currently risking their lives in Iraq, and it hands a major propaganda victory to the insurgents they are fighting. The spin says we are slowly gaining the upper hand, and yet the insurgents are still so strong that they can choose which young men we can send to defend the fledgling Iraqi democracy.

Without over-dramatising an incident in which no lives have been lost, this is an extremely disappointing decision and we feel equally for the soldiers already in the field and Harry back at home.