 "'Deeply disappointing': Trump sparks backlash in UK over claim Nato troops avoided frontline combat in Afghanistan")
US President Donald Trump has drawn sharp criticism from British politicians and military veterans after claiming that Nato troops avoided frontline combat during the war in Afghanistan.
The US president made the remarks in an interview with Fox News, in which he again suggested that Nato allies would not support the United States if called upon. His comments prompted condemnation across the UK political spectrum, with critics citing the deaths of 457 British service personnel in Afghanistan and questioning Trump’s own record of military service.
A total of 3,486 Nato troops were killed during the 20-year conflict, including 2,461 US personnel. Canada lost 165 troops, while Denmark suffered 44 combat deaths — the highest per capita toll outside the US.
In the Fox News interview, 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 frontlines.”
British junior minister Stephen Kinnock described the comments as “deeply disappointing”, stressing the sacrifices made by European allies.
“Many, many British soldiers and many soldiers from other European Nato allies gave their lives in support of American-led missions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq,” he told Sky News.
“I think anybody who seeks to criticise what [our armed forces] have done and the sacrifices that they make is plainly wrong,” he added.
Calvin Bailey, a Labour MP and former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations forces in Afghanistan, said Trump’s claim “bears no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there”.
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View AllConservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served as a captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment in Afghanistan, told The Guardian 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”.
Tan Dhesi, chair of the Commons defence committee, called the remarks “appalling and an insult to our brave British servicemen and women, who risked life and limb to help our allies, with many making the ultimate sacrifice”.
Emily Thornberry, chair of the foreign affairs committee, said the comments were “so much more than a mistake” and amounted to “an insult” to the families of those who had died.
Trump has previously faced criticism for avoiding conscription during the Vietnam war after being diagnosed with bone spurs, a claim that has been widely questioned.
Stephen Stewart, a former soldier and author, said, “Trump’s comments are as offensive as they are inaccurate. It’s hugely ironic that someone who allegedly dodged the draft for the Vietnam war should make such a disgraceful statement.
“He has desecrated the memory of hundreds of British soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, people who we called friends and comrades. If he was a man of honour, he would get down on bended knees to ask forgiveness from the families of the fallen.”
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, wrote on X, “Trump avoided military service 5 times. How dare he question their sacrifice. Farage and all the others still fawning over Trump should be ashamed.”
Bailey added that allied forces were united by shared values.
“As I reminded the US forces I served with on 4 July in 2008, we were there because of a shared belief, articulated at America’s founding, that free people have inalienable rights and should not live under tyranny. That belief underpinned the response to 9/11, and it is worth reflecting on now.”
The United States remains the only country to have invoked Article 5 of Nato’s collective defence clause, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
With inputs from agencies
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