‘They sent some troops to Afghanistan – and they stayed a little back, a little off the frontline.’
That comment from President Trump about European NATO allies is hard for me not to take personally.
My own military service included not only leadership of the UK’s evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021, flying one of the last planes out of Kabul, but within the United States Air Force Special Operations Command.
In 2013, I was honoured for this work by then President Obama with the Air Medal.
How times have changed.
The bereaved families of the 457 people the UK lost in service have had the wounds of their grief reopened by one of the most powerful men in the world, and our first thoughts must be with them.
When the ally whose call we answered throws our losses in the mud, the UK’s 150,000 Afghanistan veterans are forced to reflect on what our service and sacrifices truly meant.
Very few of us served without losing friends, and today I am thinking about mine – like ‘Ant’, Squadron Leader Anthony Downing, who died after being hit by a roadside bomb just before Christmas 15 years ago.
That’s why Trump’s remarks sting – this is truly personal to me, but it should be important to us all. Speaking out is about denying anyone the ability to rewrite history, no matter their power.
So let us be utterly clear: these comments are the reverse of the truth.
UK forces and those of our allies including Denmark and Estonia were concentrated in the most dangerous frontline areas in Helmand province through the heaviest years of fighting and sacrifice.
The vast majority of the UK service people lost – 405 people – were killed by hostile action.
Denmark, now subjected to White House bullying over Greenland, actually lost more troops as a share of their population than the United States up until 2009, and both Danish and UK losses were similar to the figure for the United States over the war as a whole.
It remains true that the only time NATO’s Article 5 (that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all) has been invoked was by the United States following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
While a range of countries contributed from around the world, notably Australia and Georgia, it was overwhelmingly European and Canadian NATO allies who answered when it came to the military engagements that followed – the same nations now being threatened, insulted, and dismissed.
We must understand that President Trump’s words are unrepresentative of the United States military, who have not forgotten our deep friendship, nor the people of America on this.
Polls show that Americans oppose coercion over Greenland, and I have had personal messages of transatlantic solidarity, including from American friends on the right.
At home, it’s a disgrace that the likes of Nigel Farage are so cowed that he could barely bring himself to correct such a fundamental slight.
He only felt able to say Trump’s comment was ‘not quite fair’, which highlights his servile agreement with everything else, including the idea that the United States needs to take over Greenland.
And it is not only Reform who are making the challenge of diplomacy to meet.
The power of Trump’s momentary tirades was magnified just this week by opportunistic boosting of his words on the Chagos treaty by Kemi Badenoch.
We have to recognise that our national interest lies in becoming resilient to the noise from the White House, and that will not happen so long as some are willing to piggyback on it for shallow political gain.
It is welcome that this week President Trump stepped back from threatening force and economic bullying through tariffs – a valuable statement given the serious threat we all face from Russia. It is deeply saddening that these positive steps were undermined by his outburst on Afghanistan.
This is far from the first time that President Trump has belittled or sought to coerce his allies, and we know from bitter experience it will not be the last. We have to respond calmly, focusing on the underlying reality more than the superficial language.
We remain close allies with the United States, and our security arrangements across defence, intelligence and more are tightly interwoven, as my own military career illustrates.
Proposals from the likes of the Greens to threaten the United States with closure of bases, or cut off all our cooperation, are not just naive but dangerous.
This comes at a time when Russia threatens every part of Europe across the whole spectrum: cyberattacks, cutting undersea cables, information warfare, and sabotage, in addition to the brutal war in Ukraine.
That growing threat from the East is combined with a very real shift in the United States, beneath one man’s bluster, that has been ongoing for many years.
The United States is no longer interested in being the primary guarantor of Europe’s security. Its commitment to the rules-based international order that provided a secure foundation for our shared values and interests is increasingly contested and unreliable.
So, we must respond to insults like this calmly and clearly. Remember the truth. Honour our fallen. Prevent a rupture that would benefit only Putin.
And build power with our European NATO allies and other like-minded states around the world. So that however much we are belittled, we will never be dominated.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jessica.aureli@metro.co.uk.
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