Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called US President Donald Trump’s comments about NATO troops staying off the front lines in Afghanistan insulting and appalling. The remarks have also drawn criticism from British leaders, European allies, veterans’ groups, and families of fallen soldiers. “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling, and I’m not surprised they’ve caused such hurt for the loved ones of those who were killed or injured,” Starmer told reporters.
When asked whether he would demand an apology from the Trump, Starmer said, “If I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologise.”
Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Trump claimed that allied nations sent troops to Afghanistan but kept them away from the front lines. “They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” he said. “And they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
Britain lost 457 service personnel killed in Afghanistan, its deadliest overseas war since the 1950s. For several of the war’s most intense years it led the allied campaign in Helmand, Afghanistan’s biggest and most violent province, while also fighting as the main U.S. battlefield ally in Iraq, reported Reuters. Starmer’s remarks were notably strong coming from a leader who has tended to avoid direct criticism of Trump in public.
Trump remarks added to already strained relations with European allies after he used the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos to again signal his interest in acquiring Greenland.
Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel condemned Trump’s remarks on Afghanistan, calling them untrue and disrespectful.
Britain’s Prince Harry, who served in Afghanistan, also weighed in. “Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect,” he said in a statement.
“We expect an apology for this statement,” Roman Polko, a retired Polish general and former special forces commander who also served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told Reuters in an interview.
Trump has “crossed a red line”, he added. “We paid with blood for this alliance. We truly sacrificed our own lives.”
