Trump sparks anger with claim Nato troops avoided Afghanistan front line

Donald Trump has sparked fresh outrage in the UK after he said NATO troops had remained “a little bit away from the front lines” during the war in Afghanistan.

Labor MP Emily Thornberry, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, called it an “absolute insult” to the 457 British servicemen killed in the conflict, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “How dare he question their sacrifice?”

Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan, said it was “sad to see the sacrifice of our nation and that of our NATO partners come so cheaply”.

The UK was among several allies who joined the US in Afghanistan from 2001, after invoking NATO’s collective security clause following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The US president said on Fox News on Thursday that he was “not sure” the military alliance would be there for America “if we ever needed it.”

“We never needed them,” he said, adding, “We never really asked them for anything.”

“They will say they sent troops to Afghanistan,” he said, “and they did, they stayed a little behind, a little behind the front lines.”

He said the United States had “been very good to Europe and to many other countries,” adding: “This has to be a two-way street.”

Thornberry told BBC Question Time that the remarks were “much more than a mistake”.

“It’s an absolute insult… How dare he say we weren’t on the front line, how dare he?

“We have always been there whenever the Americans wanted us,” she said, calling Trump “a man who has never seen any action” but is now “commander in chief and knows nothing about how America has been defended.”

She said the US was Britain’s “friend”, but its leader had “behaved in an intimidating and rude manner, which was deliberately trying to weaken us, and which was trying to undermine NATO”.

On the same show, Conservative shadow cabinet member Stuart Andrew also described the comments as “shameful” and “appalling”.

“There are many people in this country who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom lost their lives, but also many others who came back with life-changing injuries and we should say thank you to them.”

He added that the special relationship between the UK and the US was important for both defense and security, and that in recent weeks Trump had shifted discussions towards Arctic security, where he said there was a “very serious threat”.

Sir Ed wrote on social media that Trump had “avoided military service”, adding: “How dare he question their sacrifice? »

Separately, former British army officer Obese-Jecty said he was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our NATO partners, held so cheaply by the President of the United States.”

“I witnessed the sacrifices made by British soldiers,” he wrote on X.

“I do not believe the American military shares President Trump’s views; his words do them a disservice as our closest military allies.”

Calvin Bailey, a Labor MP and former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations units in Afghanistan, said the president’s claims bore “no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there”.

“As I reminded the American forces I served in on July 4, 2008, we were there because of a shared belief, expressed at America’s founding, that free people have unalienable rights and should not live under tyranny,” he told the PA news agency.

“This belief underpinned the response to 9/11, and it is worth reflecting on now.”

The BBC has contacted the Ministry of Defense for comment.

A spokesperson pointed to comments Defense Secretary John Healey made Wednesday during a visit to NATO ally Denmark before Trump’s comments.

He said: “In Afghanistan, our forces trained together, they fought together and, on some occasions, they died together, making the ultimate sacrifice. »

The United States invaded the country in October 2001 to oust the Taliban, who it said were sheltering Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the September 11 attacks. NATO countries contributed troops and military equipment to the war led by the United States.

More than 3,500 coalition troops had died as of 2021, when the United States withdrew from the country, about two-thirds of them Americans.

The United Kingdom recorded the second highest number of military deaths in the conflict, behind the United States, which suffered 2,461 deaths.

The United States is the only country to have invoked the collective security provisions of NATO’s Article 5, which states that “an armed attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against all.”