{"id":198998,"date":"2026-02-02T22:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T22:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/we-heard-the-call-we-came-running-trumps-nato-remarks-have-shaken-allied-veterans-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T22:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T22:52:06","slug":"we-heard-the-call-we-came-running-trumps-nato-remarks-have-shaken-allied-veterans-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/we-heard-the-call-we-came-running-trumps-nato-remarks-have-shaken-allied-veterans-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"'We heard the call, we came running': Trump's NATO remarks have shaken allied veterans – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump partially walked back his claim that NATO troops in Afghanistan stayed "off the front lines," but veterans aren't likely to forget the remarks.
PETERBOROUGH, England \u2014 Helmand province\u2019s shades of yellow, cookies wrapped in pink foil and southern Afghanistan\u2019s<\/a> sweaty heat have imprinted on Lance Cpl. Cassidy Little\u2019s mind.
But then his memory of that day in May 2011 fractures. One moment he was walking through an unsecured compound with his patrol, the next he was on his back, staring into swirling dust and black smoke, his body unresponsive. He had been hit by a blast from an improvised explosive device<\/a> that had been buried underground for months.
\u201cI felt like I had dust from my tonsils to my prostate,\u201d Little, 44, told NBC News this week in Peterborough, a cathedral city 75 miles north of London<\/a>. As a trained medic, Little pressed a fellow Royal Marines commando to be honest about the damage to his right leg. Eventually, he received the reply: \u201cIt\u2019s gone.\u201d
The same explosion killed two of Little\u2019s friends and an interpreter as their patrol pushed into a hostile area not yet controlled by NATO \u2014 part of the same allied mission<\/a> that President Donald Trump denigrated last week.
\u201cThey\u2019ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, and they did,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.\u201d
Taking long pauses as he spoke and appearing to rein in his frustration, Little responded to Trump\u2019s comments that cast doubt on whether NATO allies would be there for America \u201cif we ever needed them.\u201d
\u201cWhen I was hit, I was so far in front of the front line that I couldn\u2019t see the front line in my rearview mirror,\u201d he said.
Trump\u2019s assertions about NATO forces not coming to the United States\u2019 defense are incorrect: More than 1,000 NATO troops<\/a> from over 25 countries, including 457 British service personnel, died in Afghanistan. Double that number were seriously wounded. Around 2,400 U.S. service members died in the conflict between 2001 and 2021.
The war, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks<\/a> on the U.S., remains the only time that the alliance\u2019s collective defense clause, known as Article 5, has been invoked.
After stoking outrage among Britons ranging from Prince Harry to Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a>, Trump sought to backtrack.
Trump praised British troops as \u201camong the greatest of all warriors\u201d in a post on Truth Social, while stopping short of an apology.
For Little, who now works as an actor while serving as an ambassador for a veterans welfare group, Trump\u2019s comments sparked an initial surge of anger before he forced himself to calm down. But the president\u2019s appraisal of British troops, without mentioning the dozens of other nations who lost soldiers during the conflict, was \u201cnot an apology,\u201d he said.
\u201cI stood shoulder to shoulder with the Estonians. I stood shoulder to shoulder with the Danish<\/a>,\u201d he said, sitting in a vape shop and cafe, in a corner of the room dedicated to veterans. \u201cThese are people that I\u2019ve served with on the ground, including the Americans and the Canadians.\u201d
Trump\u2019s remarks caused fury across Europe and NATO countries, reopening old wounds and casting fresh doubt on the future of an alliance that has already cost so much for people like Little.
Alice Rufo, the minister delegate at the French Defense Ministry<\/a>, laid a wreath at a monument in downtown Paris on Monday dedicated to those who died for France in overseas operations. Speaking to reporters, she said it was crucial to show that \u201cwe do not accept that their memory be insulted.\u201d
Denmark lost 44 soldiers in Afghanistan, a higher number of fatalities than any other ally apart from the U.S. when taken as a proportion of its population of less than 6 million.
Denmark\u2019s leaders described Trump\u2019s comments as deeply disrespectful to allied sacrifices, and veterans joined a silent march in the capital, Copenhagen<\/a>, braving subzero temperatures on Saturday to decry the president\u2019s remarks.
A minute of silence was also observed outside the U.S. Embassy, where earlier this week veterans had placed a flag for each Danish soldier killed in the conflict.
In Britain, Starmer \u2014 usually deliberate in his dealings with Trump \u2014 called the comments \u201cinsulting and frankly appalling,\u201d saying he was not surprised they had caused \u201csuch hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.\u201d
Prince Harry<\/a>, who served two tours in Afghanistan, said the sacrifices of allied troops \u201cdeserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect,\u201d adding: \u201cI served there. I lost friends there.\u201d
Nikki Scott\u2019s husband, Cpl. Lee Scott, was killed in Afghanistan while serving in the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, leaving behind his wife and two children.
Holding a black book containing briefing notes that her husband had taken, she said in a video posted on LinkedIn: \u201cI believe in the difference he and all our armed forces made, and no one should tell us otherwise.\u201d
The sweeping response speaks to wider concerns about what Trump\u2019s stance could mean for the future of NATO and its relationship with the U.S., already under increasing strain as Russia seeks to test the alliance\u2019s resolve.
\u201cEquivocation from Washington<\/a> weakens deterrence, emboldens Moscow, and risks persuading soldiers on the ground that NATO no longer carries the saliency or seriousness it once did,\u201d said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank in London.
\u201cWhile the remarks change little for soldiers fighting in Ukraine,\u201d he said, \u201cstrategically, they are deeply corrosive.\u201d
Little recalls the commitment of NATO forces firsthand after the attacks on the U.S. in 2001, and the contrast between that reality and political rhetoric gives him pause.
\u201cFor the rest of us that were upfront, getting pulled apart, losing dads and brothers and husbands, we heard the call, we came running, and we happily went out there,\u201d he said.
\u201cThe trust that NATO has America\u2019s back has not been eroded. What\u2019s been eroded here is the trust that America has ours.\u201d
Freddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.\u00a0
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePresident Donald Trump partially walked back his claim that NATO troops in Afghanistan stayed "off the front lines," but veterans aren't likely to forget the remarks.PETERBOROUGH, England \u2014 Helmand province\u2019s shades of yellow, cookies wrapped in pink foil and southern Afghanistan\u2019s sweaty heat have imprinted on Lance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-198998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}