Fury Erupts After Trump Says NATO Troops Stayed Off the Front Line in Afghanistan

In an interview on Fox News, Donald Trump has provoked outrage across NATO member states with comments made during the broadcast about their role in assisting US troops in Afghanistan. Speaking on the network, he claimed that the United States did not need NATO because allied forces stayed away from «the front lines», a remark that immediately drew strong reactions from within the alliance. The comments were widely interpreted as dismissive of the military contribution made by NATO countries during the US-led war, particularly by those that deployed combat units in high-risk areas. Several member states pointed out that their soldiers fought alongside American troops and suffered heavy losses over the course of the conflict. Critics argue that Trump's remarks insult NATO countries whose troops paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving on the front line of the war in Afghanistan.

Talking about NATO's involvement alongside the United States after Washington invoked Article 5 for the first time in the alliance's history, Donald Trump questioned the usefulness of the alliance, declaring «We've never needed them» and further diminishing its value by adding «We have never really asked anything of them». Appearing aware that such remarks would provoke strong reactions within NATO, Trump anticipated criticism by saying «They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that», before downplaying allied contributions with the assertion «And they did – they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines». Those comments sparked fury across NATO member states, where officials accused Trump of an «absolute insult» to countries that fought alongside US forces. The backlash echoed remarks made days earlier in Davos by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who reminded Trump that «For every two Americans who paid the ultimate price, there was one soldier from another NATO country that did not come back to his family», highlighting the human cost borne by US allies in Afghanistan.

During the nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan, NATO allies deployed forces under the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and later Resolute Support missions after the alliance invoked Article 5 for the first and only time following the September 11 attacks against the United States. In total, an estimated around 3 600 coalition personnel died in Afghanistan, including about 2 461 American service members, with the remainder from other NATO countries. The United Kingdom suffered approximately 457 fatalities, making it the largest non-US loss, followed by Canada with about 159 deaths, France with around 90, Germany with about 62, and Italy with roughly 53. Smaller but significant losses were recorded by Poland (about 44), Denmark (about 43), the Netherlands (about 25), Romania (about 27), and Turkey (about 15), among others. Additional NATO members such as Norway (about 10), Estonia (about 9), Czech Republic (about 14) and Hungary (about 7) also lost soldiers in the conflict. These figures illustrate the breadth of allied sacrifice alongside US forces over two decades in Afghanistan.

In a post published on Truth Social, Donald Trump further went against NATO, saying the alliance should be put «to the test» by invoking its collective defence clause to address migration at the US southern border. He suggested that Article 5 could be used to «protect» the United States against what he described as «Invasions of Illegal Immigrants». In the message, he wrote «Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks». The post immediately drew criticism from diplomats and security experts, who stressed that Article 5 is intended to respond to armed attacks against alliance members and has only been invoked once in NATO's history, following the September 11 attacks. Trump's remarks were widely seen as another escalation in his confrontational stance toward the alliance and a distortion of its core mission.

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