The UK’s Prince Harry joined the growing backlash on Friday against President Trump’s claim that US allies largely held back during the fighting in Afghanistan after 9/11. Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the British army, said in a statement that the sacrifices of troops who responded to the 2001 invocation of NATO’s Article 5 “deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect,” according to People.
“I served there. I made lifelong friends there,” Harry said. “And I lost friends there.”
Trump, in a Fox News interview that aired Thursday, questioned whether NATO allies would “be there” if the US needed them. He added that while partners “sent some troops to Afghanistan,” they “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.” Following the 9/11 attacks, the US led a coalition to remove al-Qaeda and the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, NBC News reported. As Harry emphasized, this effort included NATO invoking Article 5 for the only time in its history. “It meant that every allied nation was obliged to stand with the United States in Afghanistan, in pursuit of our shared security. Allies answered that call,” he said.
Other veterans and family members from allied nations have criticized Trump’s remarks, the BBC reported. “It’s as personal as it gets,” said the mother of Cyrus Thatcher, a British service member killed at 19 by an IED while assisting a US bomb disposal team. The mother of Christopher Kershaw, who died 14 years ago at 19 when the armored vehicle he was driving struck an IED just three weeks into deployment, added, “I think they should put Donald Trump in a uniform and put him on the front line, instead of pushing a pen behind a desk. He should go out there and do it himself.” She said she misses her son every day and wonders what he would be doing now.
