{"id":5458,"date":"2026-02-05T13:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/trumps-criticism-of-nato-soldiers-in-afghanistan-angers-veterans\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T13:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:19:25","slug":"trumps-criticism-of-nato-soldiers-in-afghanistan-angers-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/trumps-criticism-of-nato-soldiers-in-afghanistan-angers-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Criticism of NATO Soldiers in Afghanistan Angers Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Comments made by President Donald Trump on Thursday disparaging NATO coalition soldiers in the war in Afghanistan have drawn the ire of British veterans and politicians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During an interview with Fox News, Trump claimed allies weren\u2019t involved in front-line operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan \u2026 and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,\u201d Trump said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s unclear what Trump meant by \u201cfront lines\u201d since the decades-long conflict in Afghanistan wasn\u2019t fought along traditional front lines, such as in World War II.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Military.com reached out to the White House for comment on Friday. \u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Help for Heroes, a veteran charity organization, more than 1,100 non-U.S. soldiers were killed in the war in Afghanistan, most of them from NATO coalition forces, while over 2,300 American troops died in the 20-year conflict. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Both the UK and the U.S. have been tight NATO allies since the organization\u2019s founding in 1949. The two nations helped form an alliance, along with several other Western countries, for security against threats from the Soviet Union. Thirty-two nations are currently in NATO. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump, however, questioned the alliance\u2019s loyalty on Thursday, saying he wasn\u2019t confident fellow countries would \u201cbe there if we ever needed them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Offensive and Not Accurate\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s comments have no doubt rankled many in the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lord Mark Sedwill, who once served as British ambassador to Afghanistan, said that Trump\u2019s statement was \u201coffensive and simply wrong.\u201d In an interview with Times Radio, Sedwill said it\u2019s deeply offensive to Afghanistan veterans and families who lost loved ones fighting in the war. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans took the burden but the UK and Denmark, for example, had a higher rate of casualties than the Americans,\u201d Sedwill said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/article>
British soldiers of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers transport a notionally wounded soldier to a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for a medical evacuation during a mission rehearsal exercise (MRE) at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, March 18, 2014. The MRE was conducted at the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Commands Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Areas in order to prepare subordinate battalions of the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade to deploy to Afghanistan to provide medical evacuation and combat support to the NATO International Security Assistance Force mission. (U.S. Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Times in London, England, interviewed families who lost soldiers in Afghanistan, saying battles in Helmand Province, for instance, had no front line, due to the Taliban\u2019s use of improvised explosive devices and guerilla warfare tactics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Statements \u2018Sad to See\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ian Wright lost his son, Gary Wright, only 22, in a suicide bombing. Wright, a Scottish member of the Royal Marines, died in 2006 when a man detonated a bomb in Lashkar Gar in the Helmand Province.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no such thing as a front line in Afghanistan,\u201d Ian Wright said. \u201cThe Taliban were not in any form of unit and not identifiable. They relied on IEDs and mixing with the public.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wright questioned why more people weren\u2019t calling out Trump\u2019s inaccurate comments. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, people would be shocked at the lack of diplomacy and factual accuracy shown by a president of the USA,\u201d Wright said. \u201cSadly, this is not the case in respect of the current incumbent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some critics are also pointing to Trump\u2019s lack of military service, having received five deferments from serving during the Vietnam War.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump avoided military service five times. How dare he question their sacrifice?\u201d said Sir Ed Davey, a Liberal Democrat in the British government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even conservatives in the UK are calling out the president. Ben Obese-Jecty, an Afghanistan War veteran and former captain of the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, said, \u201cIt was sad to see our nation\u2019s sacrifice, and that of our NATO partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cNormally, people would be shocked at the lack of diplomacy and factual accuracy shown by a president of the USA,\u201d Wright said. \u201cSadly, this is not the case in respect of the current incumbent.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Obese-Jecty witnessed the perils of war up close.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw firsthand the sacrifices made by British soldiers I served alongside in Sangin, where we suffered horrific casualties, as did the U.S. Marines the following year,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe U.S. military personnel share the view of President Trump; his words do them a disservice as our closest military allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/article>

British Royal Air Force Regiment Lance Cpl. Thomas Bailey from Burnley, England, and attached to Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment (2\/2) gains entry into a compound while seeking cover during Operation Grizzly in Helmand province, Afghanistan, July 18, 2013. Grizzly was a counter-insurgency operation to deter enemy activity, establish a presence and gather human intelligence. (U.S. Marine Corps)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Past Comments Resurface\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Trump has made disparaging comments about veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2015, while at a campaign event in Ames, Iowa, Trump told an audience that John McCain, the late Arizona Senator and Navy veteran, was a \u201closer.\u201d McCain\u2019s plane was shot down in Vietnam, and he survived nearly six years in a prisoner of war camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event\u2019s moderator, Republican pollster Frank Luntz, said, \u201cBut he\u2019s a war hero!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not skipping a beat, Trump responded, \u201cHe\u2019s not a war hero. He\u2019s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren\u2019t captured.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

During his first term, in 2018, prior to a planned trip to visit a cemetery in France, Trump allegedly called the American World War I veterans buried there \u201closers.\u201d The story in The Atlantic also quoted sources close to Trump calling soldiers \u201csuckers\u201d and didn\u2019t like the idea of having wounded veterans in military parades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite his remarks, the president did accomplish several milestones within the Department of Veterans Affairs in his first term, including improving care, patient choice, and the removal of thousands of VA employees who he claimed weren\u2019t provided adequate care. He also expanded telehealth programs and funding for mental health services, along with signing the Veterans Appeals and Modernization Act, to improve VA efficiency and speed up claims processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump also signed legislation to provide more educational opportunities through the GI Bill and allow student loan forgiveness for completely and permanently disabled veterans. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s too early to assess Trump\u2019s efforts for veterans in his second term, the president has pushed hard to reform the VA, threatening to slash more than 80,000 jobs at the nation\u2019s largest healthcare system, only to ease back and eliminate about 30,000 positions. The VA announced in December that another 35,000 positions would be cut, but that most of them would be jobs that have gone unfilled for a long period of time. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comments made by President Donald Trump on Thursday disparaging NATO coalition soldiers in the war in Afghanistan have drawn the ire of British veterans and politicians.\u00a0 During an interview with Fox News, Trump claimed allies weren\u2019t involved in front-line operations.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan \u2026 and they did, they stayed a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images04.military.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/full\/public\/2026-01\/trump_1_1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5460,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5458\/revisions\/5460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}