As everyone know, then NATO article 5 has only been invoked once: George W Bush invoked it after September 11th attack and NATO countries did send troops to Afghanistan to back the US.
But Donald Trump was apperently not impress.
TheGuardian:They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines,” he said
“I know we’ll come to [Nato’s] rescue, but I just really do question whether or not they’ll come to ours,” he said
The remark about the europeans staying off the frontline created outrage in the NATO countries that had troops in Afghanistan. It is not true. Those countries encountered pretty heavy losses.
Numbers from Wikipedia.
Losses:
US : 2461 non-US : 1160 UK : 457 Canada : 159 France : 90 Germany : 62 Italy : 53 Poland : 44 Denmark : 44 Australia : 41 [non-NATO country] Spain : 35 Georgia : 32 [non-NATO country] ...
Losses per million citizens (aka adjusting for countries size):
Georgia : 8.42 [non-NATO country] Denmark : 8.00 US : 7.96 UK : 7.25 Estonia : 6.92 Canada : 4.68 ...
Trump later pulled back at least regarding UK.
Reuters:"The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "In Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors. It's a bond too strong to ever be broken."
I think he owe the soldiers from all countries that fought in Afghanistan an apology.
They were in the frontline and many were killed or wounded.
It does not help that Trump stayed far behind the frontline in Vietnam as a civilian, that his children stayed far behind the frontline in Afghanistan as civilians and that the VP did go to Iraq but as a correspondent writing articles and taking photographs.
There is nothing wrong with not serving in the military - the military are not able to take everyone. There is nothing wrong with serving in non-combat roles - combat troops rely on non-combat troops doing their job.
But please show some damn respect for those going into combat!!!!