US president Donald Trump has provoked anger among British politicians and veteran fighters by claiming Nato soldiers avoided the front lines in the war in Afghanistan.
Over 1,100 non-US coalition fighters died in the conflict that began in 2001, according to veteran charity Help for Heroes, the overwhelming majority of them being Nato countries, while more than 2,300 members of the US armed forces were killed.
But Mr Trump ramped up tensions with Nato on Thursday, saying he was not sure the alliance would “be there if we ever needed them”.
He 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.”
Lord Sedwill, a former British ambassador to Afghanistan, told Times Radio that Mr Trump’s claim was offensive and simply wrong, and that Afghanistan veterans and the families of those who died would be right to feel deeply offended.
He said: “The Americans took the burden but the UK and Denmark, for example, had a higher rate of casualties than the Americans.
“I was in Afghanistan, that was certainly the case there, and [they] were engaged in some of the most vicious fighting in some of the most dangerous areas. And so he is completely wrong to be dismissive.”
British families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan told The Times there was no front line in Helmand because the Taliban planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and hid among the public.
Ian Wright, whose son, Gary Wright, 22, a Royal Marine from Scotland, was killed in 2006, when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, said: “There was no such thing as a front line in Afghanistan. The Taliban were not in any form of unit and not identifiable. They relied on IEDs and mixing with the public.”
He said normally people would be “shocked at the lack of diplomacy and factual accuracy shown by a president of the USA. Sadly this is not the case in respect of the current incumbent.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Trump avoided military service five times. How dare he question their sacrifice.”
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.”
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