London — European military veterans, families of the fallen, and politicians have voiced outrage after President Trump claimed the U.S. had “never needed” its NATO allies, and that allied troops had stayed “a little off the front lines” during the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
“The only time NATO has ever enacted Article 5 was after the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States, and the world rallied to the support of the U.S.,” Alistair Carns, the U.K. government’s Minister of the Armed Forces and a veteran who served five tours in Afghanistan alongside American troops, said in a video posted Friday on social media. “We shed blood, sweat and tears together, and not everybody came home. These are bonds, I think, forged in fire, protecting U.S. or shared interests, but actually protecting democracy overall.”
More than 2,200 American troops were killed in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. The Reuters news agency says 457 British military personnel, 150 Canadians and 90 French troops died alongside them. Denmark lost 44 troops in Afghanistan — in per capita terms, about the same death rate as that of the United States.
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“There are two great sayings worth remembering,” Carns said in his video responding to Mr. Trump’s remarks. “Number one: ‘There’s only one worse thing than working with allies. That is working without them.’ And when you do, always remember: ‘Never above, never below, always side-by-side.”
A spokesperson for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday that Mr. Trump, “was wrong to diminish the role of NATO troops” in Afghanistan.
Later Friday, Starmer called the remarks “insulting and frankly appalling.”
“We expect an apology for this statement,” Roman Polko, a retired Polish general and former special forces commander who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told the Reuters news agency.
Mr. Trump has “crossed a red line,” he said. “We paid with blood for this alliance. We truly sacrificed our own lives.”
Lucy Aldridge, the mother of the youngest British soldier killed in Afghanistan, told the BBC she was “deeply disgusted” by Mr. Trump’s comments. Her son William Aldridge was only 18 years old when he was killed in a 2009 bomb blast, while trying to save fellow troops.
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“Families of those who were lost to that conflict live the trauma every day. I’m not just deeply offended, I’m actually deeply disgusted,” Aldridge said. “This isn’t just misspeaking, he has deeply offended, I can imagine, every NATO member who sent troops to fight in Afghanistan and certainly the families of those who never came home.”
The former head of the British Army, Lord Richard Dannatt, called Mr. Trump’s comments, “outrageous.”
“Well frankly, one was dumbfounded, because they’re [Mr. Trump’s comments] so factually incorrect. Absolutely disrespectful to our nation, to our armed forces and to the families of the 457 British service men and women who lost their lives in Afghanistan,” Dannatt told the BBC.
“The comments that he made … are just totally disrespectful, wrong and outrageous. It does make you wonder whether he is actually fit for the job that he apparently is doing,” Dannatt added.
“We Europeans must do more, and if there’s anything positive that Donald Trump has done in his assorted ramblings over the last year, it’s actually to make that point,” the former U.K. army chief said. “European governments must really listen up, stand up now and find the cash that’s needed to increase our military capability, not because we want to fight a war, but we need to deter further aggression.”
CBS News asked the White House on Friday about Mr. Trump’s remarks on the role America’s NATO allies played in the war in Afghanistan, and the criticism directed at him.
Deputy press secretary Anna Kelly replied with the following statement: “President Trump is right — America’s contributions to NATO dwarf that of other countries, and his success in delivering a five percent spending pledge from NATO allies is helping Europe take greater responsibility for its own defense. The United States is the only NATO partner who can protect Greenland, and the President is advancing NATO interests in doing so.”
