By PAN PYLAS, Related Press
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has signaled that U.S. President Donald Trump ought to apologize for his false assertion that troops from non-U.S. NATO nations averted the entrance line through the Afghanistan conflict, describing Trump’s remarks as “insulting” and “appalling.”
Trump mentioned that he wasn’t certain NATO can be there to assist the USA if and when requested, scary outrage and misery throughout the UK on Friday, no matter people’ political persuasion.
In October 2001, almost a month after the Sept. 11 assaults, the U.S. led a global coalition in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida, which had used the nation as its base, and the group’s Taliban hosts. Alongside the U.S. had been troops from dozens of nations, together with from NATO, whose mutual-defense mandate had been triggered for the primary time after the assaults on New York and Washington.
FILE – Kin of British Military Personal Douglas Halliday, of the first Battalion The Mercian Regiment, one of many seven British troopers killed in Afghanistan, line a road as his coffin is pushed by the city of Wootton Bassett, England, following repatriation, Tuesday, June 29, 2010. (AP Photograph/Lefteris Pitarakis, file)
UK sacrifice
Within the U.Okay., the response to Trump’s feedback was uncooked.
Starmer paid tribute to the 457 British personnel who died and to these have been left with profound life-long accidents.
“I will never forget their courage, their bravery and the sacrifice they made for their country,” Starmer mentioned. “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling and I am not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country.”
With out naming Trump, Prince Harry weighed in to the furor too, saying the “sacrifices” of British troopers through the conflict “deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.”
“Thousands of lives were changed forever,” mentioned Harry, who undertook two excursions of obligation in Afghanistan within the British Military and who misplaced pals there. “Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.”
After 9/11, then Prime Minister Tony Blair mentioned that the U.Okay. would “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the U.S. in response to the al-Qaida assaults. British troops took a key position in lots of operations through the Afghan conflict till their withdrawal in 2014, notably in Helmand Province within the south of the nation. American troops remained in Afghanistan till their chaotic withdrawal in 2021 when the Taliban returned to energy.
Greater than 150,000 British troops served in Afghanistan within the years after the invasion, the most important contingent after the American one.
Ben Overweight-Jecty, a lawmaker who served in Afghanistan as a captain within the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, mentioned that 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.”
Trump and Vietnam
Anger was additional fueled by the truth that the feedback got here from somebody who didn’t serve within the Vietnam Warfare at a time when he was eligible.
“It’s hugely ironic that someone who allegedly dodged the draft for the Vietnam War should make such a disgraceful statement,” mentioned Stephen Stewart, writer of “The Accidental Soldier,” an account of his time embedded with British troops in Afghanistan.
Trump obtained a deferment that allowed him to not serve in Vietnam due to bone spurs, however he has been unable to recollect through which foot, resulting in accusations of draft dodging.
Repeated NATO slights
It wasn’t the primary time that Trump downplayed the dedication of NATO nations over the previous few days. It has been one in every of his pivotal traces of assault as he escalated his threats to grab Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to Denmark.
Trump’s allegation that NATO nations gained’t be there when requested stands in stark distinction to actuality.
The one time Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty has been used was in response to the 9/11 assaults on the U.S. The article is the important thing mutual protection clause, obliging all member nations to return to assistance from one other member whose sovereignty or territorial integrity could be underneath menace.
“When America needed us after 9/11 we were there,” former Danish platoon commander Martin Tamm Andersen mentioned.
Denmark has been a stalwart ally of the U.S. in Afghanistan, with 44 Danish troopers killed there — the very best per capita demise toll amongst coalition forces. Eight extra died in Iraq.
The most recent controversy surrounding Trump comes on the finish of every week when he has confronted criticism — and pushback — for his threats to Greenland.
Trump additionally threatened to slap tariffs on European nations against his ambitions to annex Greenland, which raised questions over the way forward for NATO. And although Trump backed down after a gathering with NATO Secretary-Common Mark Rutte through which he mentioned they fashioned the “framework” for a deal over Arctic safety, trans-Atlantic relations have taken a success.
His newest feedback are unlikely to enhance relations.
Diane Dernie, whose son Ben Parkinson suffered horrific accidents when a British Military Land Rover hit a mine in Afghanistan in 2006, mentioned that Trump’s newest feedback had been “the ultimate insult” and referred to as on Starmer to face as much as Trump over them.
“Call him out,” she mentioned. “Make a stand for those who fought for this country and for our flag, because it’s just beyond belief.”
Taking her up on that, Starmer mentioned “what I say to Diane is, if I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologize and I’d apologize to her.”
Anders Kongshaug contributed to this report from Copenhagen, Denmark.
