After the damage done by the American president in Davos – and make no mistake, it was significant, with alliances further ruptured – he has now managed to amplify it with comments that are as disrespectful as they are false.
To suggest that coalition forces fighting with the Americans in Afghanistan “stayed a little back; a little off the frontlines” will also resonate far wider than debates over geopolitical realignment.
It’s hard to know sometimes whether Trump is ignorant or just doesn’t really care.
The Danish lost more soldiers in Afghanistan per capita than any other NATO nation. Pic: Reuters
As James Matthews and I discussed on the Trump100 podcast, it’s probably both, perhaps combined too with some intentional provocation – easier for someone seemingly incapable of empathy.
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His words will be a gut punch for the families of the 1,160 non-American coalition soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan.
It will be a gut punch too for the thousands more who were wounded fighting this war, many left without limbs.
And it will be a gut punch to the soldiers of so many nations who stood up to fight alongside American soldiers on the frontlines and for whom not a day will pass without them thinking about their experiences in that war.
Afghanistan was America’s war. America’s friends stood up and answered the call for support after 9/11. For over two decades, America’s allies would continue with that support in an increasingly futile conflict.
People board a US evacuation flight in Kabul.
The sudden withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 left NATO allies scrambling to evacuate personnel. Pics: Reuters
The troops who didn’t come home
I spent time with British and Danish soldiers in Helmand Province in 2007. They were very much on the frontline. The Danish lost more soldiers in Afghanistan per capita than any other NATO nation.
Battles in towns like Sangin, Musa Qala, Babaji and Nad Ali are etched in the memories of the many who were there and the many families of those who didn’t come back.
Britons remember what became a desperately sad routine: coffins draped in the Union flag passing through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett as the fallen were repatriated and returned to their loved ones.
Mourners grieve as Private Gareth Bellingham and Craftsman Andrew Found are repatriated through Wootton Bassett. Pic: Reuters
Prince William salutes a memorial to British soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Pic: Reuters
A wreath for a soldier killed serving in Afghanistan next to the Cenotaph in 2010. Pic: Reuters
457 British service men and women died in Afghanistan.
Donald Trump dodged the draft for the Vietnam War five times.
The New York Times reports that his call up was deferred four times so he could continue his college education and one was due to a diagnosis of bone spurs – unusual bone growth – on his heels.