Nato allies of US have been outraged after Donald Trump claimed that their troops stayed ‘a little off the front line’ in Afghanistan.
The US president sparked anger after undermining the military alliance with his comments to Fox News in Davos yesterday, claiming that the Nato troops avoided action in the fight against the Taliban.
He said he was not ‘sure’ that Nato would ‘be there if we ever needed them.’
Trump said: ‘We’ve never needed them.
‘They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan… and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.’
Allies in the UK across the political spectrum hit back at the president.
Emily Thornberry MP, the labor chair of the foreign affairs committee, labelled it an ‘absolute insult’ to the 457 British troops killed in the conflict with the Taliban.
She told BBC’s Question Time that the UK troops have ‘always been there whenever the Americans have wanted us.’
Thornberry called Trump ‘a man who has never seen any action’ but who is now a commander in chief.
Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘How dare he question their sacrifice?’
Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, said: ‘It’s sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our NATO partners, held so cheaply by the President of the United States.’
He said he doesn’t believe US military personnel share the president’s view, adding that ‘his words do them a disservice as our closest military allies.’
Afghanistan Veterans’ Community (AVC) told Metro in response to Trump’s comments: ‘We at the UK Afghanistan Veterans Community are proud of the service of the 150,000 UK personnel who served alongside our coalition allies in Afghanistan, which numbered at one time 48 nations, including both the UK and US.
‘We will never forget the 457 UK Service persons who paid the ultimate sacrifice, our wounded and the families and friends who live on. Right now, we are focussing on supporting our community with the pilot of world class mental health awareness training that we will announcing more about on our channels soon.’
British troops in Afghanistan
UK military personnel were deployed in Afghanistan for more than 20 years. Around 150,000 British troops served in the conflict.
They suffered the heaviest losses in 2009 and 2010 during deployments to the infamous Helmand Province. In each of these years, over 100 soldiers were killed, and the highest number of seriously or very seriously wounded casualties peaked.
It is estimated that over 46,000 Afghan civilians were killed between 2001 and 2021, along with around 69,000 military and police, and at least 52,893 militant fighters who were killed, according to the Costs of War Project.
The conflict between the Taliban, Nato and its allies escalated after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.
After years of bloody and protracted conflict, the US and Taliban signed an agreement in February 2020 for the withdrawal of international forces from the country by May 2021.
The withdrawal descended into chaos as around 15,000 Afghans and British nationals were airlifted out of Kabul as the Taliban took over.
Thousands of desperate people ran onto the breached Kabul airport runway, with some clinging onto planes as they took off.
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