LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump provoked outrage and distress in the U.K. on Friday with his suggestion that troops from NATO countries stayed away from the frontline during the war in Afghanistan.
In an interview with Fox News in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Trump said he was not sure NATO would be there to support the U.S. if and when requested.
“I've always said, will they be there if we ever needed them and that's really the ultimate test and I'm not sure of that,” Trump said. “We’ve never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them. You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
In the U.K., which backed the U.S. in Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and more controversially in Iraq two years later, the reaction was raw. Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair said after 9/11 that the U.K. would “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the U.S. in response to the al-Qaida attacks.
More than 150,000 British troops served in Afghanistan in the years after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion, the largest contingent after the U.S., and 457 died in the campaign.
“Those British troops should be remembered for who they were: heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation," U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey said.
Ben Obese-Jecty, a lawmaker who served in Afghanistan as a captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, said it was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our NATO partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States."
It was not the first time that Trump downplayed the commitment of NATO countries over the past few days. It has been one of his pivotal lines of attack as he escalated his threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to Denmark.
Trump’s view that NATO countries won’t be there when requested stands in stark contrast to reality.
The only time Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty has been used was in response to the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. The article is the key mutual defense clause obliging all member countries to come to the aid of another member whose sovereignty or territorial integrity might be under threat.
“When America needed us after 9/11 we were there,” former Danish platoon commander Martin Tamm Andersen said.
Denmark has been a stalwart ally to the U.S. Forty-four Danish soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces. Eight more died in Iraq.
The latest controversy surrounding Trump comes at the end of a week when he has faced criticism — and pushback — for his attempts to take control of Greenland.
Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on European nations opposed to his ambitions to annex Greenland raised questions over the future of NATO. Though Trump backed down after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in which he said they formed the “framework” for a deal over Arctic security, trans-Atlantic relations have taken a hit.
His latest comments are unlikely to improve relations.
Diane Dernie, whose son Ben Parkinson suffered horrific injuries when a British Army Land Rover hit a mine in Afghanistan in 2006, said Trump's latest comments were “the ultimate insult” and called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to stand up to Trump over them.
“Call him out,” she said. “Make a stand for those who fought for this country and for our flag, because it’s just beyond belief."
