Prince Harry responded in forceful terms on Friday to President Donald Trump’s offensive, inaccurate and bewildering claims that non-American NATO troops didn’t step up in Afghanistan.
Trump, in an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, had suggested that NATO countries would not support America if asked. “We’ve never needed them,” the president asserted. “They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan... and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
Trump received five deferments from the draft during the Vietnam War, one after he was diagnosed with “bone spurs” in his heel.
Prince Harry served in a frontline capacity on two tours of Afghanistan, one of which was cut short after a news blackout broke down. In a statement responding to Trump’s claims, he said that, “In 2001, NATO invoked Article 5 for the first—and only—time in 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."
“I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there. The United Kingdom alone had 457 service personnel killed,” Harry continued. “Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace.”
Amid widespread condemnation in the United Kingdom (and across NATO countries), British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Trump’s remarks “insulting and frankly appalling.” He added that he was “not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country.”
Harry, who is on his way back to California after a week in London, set up the Invictus Games for wounded servicemen after serving in Afghanistan.
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