United Kingdom Government, linked to United States in its 'special relationship', is reluctant to criticize the Donald Trump Government. With one exception: Washington's attacks on the value of NATO soldiers - and, by extension, the United Kingdom - in the 'war on terrorism' launched by the US after the 9/11 attacks.
Former Prime Minister Keir Starmer described Donald Trump's statements in January as "insulting" that NATO troops had been "a little far from the front" in Afghanistan. Yesterday, it was the turn of the Government of his successor, Andy Burnham, to respond to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's claims that "only one or two" NATO partners (excluding the US) "participated in combat operations". A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's office called them "wrong", with a word ("wrong") that also carries moral criticism connotations. "The facts speak for themselves when it comes to the contribution of the United Kingdom and NATO to Afghanistan," Downing Street said.
Approximately one-third of all non-Afghan military personnel who fell in Afghanistan were not American. Only in combat, 405 British - including soldiers and civilians attached to the Ministry of Defense of that country -, 158 Canadians, 90 French, 35 Germans, or 15 Spaniards died, to name a few examples. None of these countries had been attacked by Afghan Taliban or Al Qaeda when the US launched the war in response to the attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
Hegseth made these statements at the University of Tennessee, where he joked that the acronym ISAF (the NATO mission acronym in that country) was mocked by American soldiers, who interpreted it as "I Saw Americans Fight". The Defense Secretary apparently does not know that, of the 130,000 military personnel that ISAF had between 2010 and 2012, 78,000 were Americans. Furthermore, when he served in the war, he did so within ISAF. Of course, Hegseth also claimed to have been deployed to the country twice, even though he was only deployed once.
The disagreement over Afghanistan adds to recent statements by Donald Trump showing sympathy for the reunification of Ireland - which would imply the separation of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom -, successful pressures from Washington on London to reverse the agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius, and the US Department of Defense withholding the latest report on the production and modernization of the F-35 fighter jet.