Donald Trump’s claim that Nato troops stayed away from the front line in Afghanistan is “deeply disappointing” and “doesn’t add up”, a UK minister has said amid outrage from veteran fighters over the US president’s comments.
Mr Trump has provoked condemnation from across the political spectrum after he made the remarks on Thursday, in which he said he was not sure the alliance would “be there if we ever needed them”.
Around 1,186 non-American Nato troops died in the conflict that began in 2001, according to Help for Heroes. More than 2,300 members of the US armed forced were killed.
But Mr Trump told Fox News: “They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
Politicians and British veterans alike have rejected the US president’s comments, with a government minister saying the claims are “plainly wrong.”
“It just doesn’t really add up what he said, because the fact of the matter is the only time that article 5 has been invoked was to go to the aid of the United States after 9/11,” care minister Stephen Kinnock told Sky News on Friday morning.
“And many, many British soldiers and many soldiers from other European Nato allies gave their lives in support of American missions, American-led missions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.”
“I am incredibly proud of our armed forces. They have put their lives on the line for our country. They are the definition of honour and valour and patriotism.
Describing British forces as “the definition of honour and valour and patriotism”, Mr Kinnock said: “I think anybody who seeks to criticise what they have done and the sacrifices that they make is plainly wrong, and I think the reaction to president Trump’s comments are very clear from right across the political spectrum, and I think the British public feels very strongly about the need to defend our armed forces and to support them in the incredibly important work that they do in the dangerous and turbulent world in which we live.”
He added: “President Trump’s comments are deeply disappointing, there is no other way to say that.
“I don’t know really why he said them. I don’t think there’s any basis for him to make those comments.”
Sir Keir Starmer is yet to respond to the comments, but Mr Kinnock told BBC Breakfast he has “absolutely no doubt” the prime minister “will make his views very plain and clear” to Mr Trump on the issue.
America remains the only country to have invoked the collective security provisions of Nato’s Article 5, with the alliance to provide support to the US after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.
The UK suffered the second highest number of military deaths in the Afghanistan conflict, behind the US, which saw 2,461 deaths.
In total, America’s allies suffered 1,160 deaths in the conflict, around a third of the total coalition deaths.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Trump avoided military service five times. How dare he question their sacrifice.”
Mr Trump has previously been criticised for avoiding being conscripted to fight in Vietnam thanks to being diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels – a claim that has been subject to significant doubt.
Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, 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”.
He said: “I saw first hand the sacrifices made by British soldiers I served alongside in Sangin where we suffered horrific casualties, as did the US Marines the following year.
“I don’t believe US military personnel share the view of President Trump; his words do them a disservice as our closest military allies.”
Calvin Bailey, a Labour MP and former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations units in Afghanistan, told the Press Association Mr Trump’s claim “bears no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there”.
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk
