Australia’s Returned and Services League (RSL) and federal politicians have joined international leaders in criticizing former U.S. President Donald Trump for his remarks about allied forces’ roles in Afghanistan. Trump had suggested that these forces, including those from Australia, remained “a little off the front lines” during their deployment.

In an interview on Thursday with Fox Business Network, Trump expressed skepticism about whether NATO allies would indeed defend the U.S. if it faced a direct threat. “We’ve never really asked much from them,” he stated. “They’ll say they sent troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, but they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”

Peter Tinley, the national president of RSL Australia, vehemently disagreed with Trump’s comments, labeling them as factually incorrect, historically uninformed, and “deeply offensive” to veterans and the 47 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan. Tinley, who has firsthand experience as a former deputy commander of Special Forces Task Groups in both Afghanistan and Iraq, emphasized the need for Australian leadership on this matter.

Tinley urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to take a stand. “The Prime Minister should demand that President Trump retract his comments and apologize to all those who served in the two-decade-long conflict,” Tinley stated in a formal release.

Tinley, who served as deputy commander of Special Forces Task Groups in Afghanistan and Iraq, called for a “show of Australian leadership” from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition leader Sussan Ley.

“The Prime Minister should call on President Trump to withdraw his comments and apologise to all those who served in the 20-year war,” Tinley said in a statement.

“Our veterans deserve nothing less than the unequivocal support of their nation’s leaders.”

While not mentioning Trump’s comments directly, Defence Minister Richard Marles made a social media post saying “the 47 who made the ultimate sacrifice will forever have their names etched on our nation’s most sacred roll of honour”.

“The more than 40,000 who served our nation in the 20 years of the war in Afghanistan did so with extraordinary bravery and made our nation proud,” he wrote.

A government spokesperson told SBS News: “Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel in Afghanistan made a very significant contribution, and we continue to honour their bravery and sacrifice.”

Addressing Australia’s veterans directly, Tinley said: “Many of you deployed multiple times, missed births, funerals, and years of your children’s lives. Some of you carry visible and invisible wounds that will never fully heal. And some of you are caring for mates who are struggling or grieving those who didn’t make it home.”

“To have that service dismissed so casually is a profound insult. Your service mattered. Your sacrifice mattered. No ill-informed comment can diminish what you did for this nation and our alliance.”

A ‘massive slur’, ‘utterly shameful’

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, who served with the ADF in Afghanistan before entering politics, said Trump’s claim was a “massive slur”.

“Not just against allied troops but against our Aussie diggers who fought, bled and died alongside Americans,” the Western Australian MP said in a video posted to Facebook.

“One of the most important things in building coalitions and alliances is mutual respect, and a really important virtue in a leader is restraint. And President Trump, by dumping on allied troops, has shown neither.”

Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie, who served in the ADF for 11 years, made a Facebook post saying Trump’s comments were “utterly shameful” and “a disgrace”.

“He needs to apologise immediately! When terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Centre on 911- Nato troops – including Australians answered the call. Forty Thousand Aussies served in Afghanistan, 41 were killed and hundreds suffered injuries both inside and out… They didn’t ‘stay back off the front lines’ – and they didn’t get ‘daddy’ to get a doctor to say they had bone spurs so they could get out of it! What a disgrace!”

In 1968, Trump was diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels, leading to a medical exemption from military service during the Vietnam War.

The New York Times reported in 2018 that a foot doctor who rented his office from Trump’s father gave him the diagnosis, and quoted one of the doctor’s daughters saying it was “family lore” that Trump had received it as a “favour” to his father.

SBS News is unaware of Trump ever directly addressing those allegations.

European leaders condemn Trump’s remarks

Trump’s comments also drew the ire of several European leaders and retired military personnel.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Trump’s comments insulting and “frankly appalling”.

“I’m not surprised they’ve caused such hurt for the loved ones of those who were killed or injured,” Starmer told reporters.

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.

Afghanistan was Britain’s deadliest overseas war since the 1950s, where it lost 457 service personnel. 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 US battlefield ally in Iraq.

Stuart Tootle, a retired colonel who commanded the first UK battle group sent to Helmand, Afghanistan’s largest province, in 2006, said Trump should apologise.

He also said that while he had “some sympathy” for Trump’s criticism of what he described as under-investment in NATO by the UK and other members, he had none for the president’s “really unfortunate, inaccurate and totally unjustified” ‌remarks.

It was not the first time that Trump downplayed the commitment of NATO members over the past few days.

It has been one of his pivotal lines of attack as he escalated his threats to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory belonging to Denmark.

The only time article five of NATO’s founding treaty has been used was in response to the 9/11 attacks.

The article is the key mutual defence clause obliging all member countries to come to the aid of another member whose sovereignty or territorial integrity might be under threat.

“When America needed us after 9/11, we were there,” former Danish platoon commander Martin Tamm Andersen said.

Forty-four Danish soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces, and eight more died in Iraq.

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