"US President Donald Trump has once again questioned whether NATO allies would "be there" if the United States "ever needed them," baselessly claiming that the alliance's troops "stayed a little back" from the frontlines in Afghanistan. "I've always said, 'Will they be there, if we ever needed them?' And that's really the ultimate test. And I'm not sure of that. I know that we would have been there, or we would be there, but will they be there?""
"In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US became the first and so far only NATO member to invoke Article 5, which states that an attack against one member is an attack against all. For 20 years, NATO allies and other partner countries fought alongside US troops in Afghanistan - a sacrifice Trump has routinely downplayed."
"While in absolute terms the US lost by far the most troops of any NATO country in Afghanistan, some European countries - with much smaller populations than the US - lost almost as many troops in relative terms. Around 3,500 allied troops died in the conflict, of which 2,456 were Americans and 457 were British. Denmark, with a population of around 5 million when the invasion began, lost more than 40 troops."
President Donald Trump questioned whether NATO allies would "be there" if the United States ever needed them, asserting allied troops "stayed a little back" from frontline fighting in Afghanistan. He framed allies' willingness to respond as the ultimate test and expressed uncertainty they would meet it despite U.S. readiness. The United States invoked NATO Article 5 after the 9/11 attacks, and NATO partners fought alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan for two decades. Trump has downplayed allied sacrifices and said the United States "never needed them" and "never really asked anything of them." His remarks angered NATO allies amid separate tensions over Greenland and past sacrifices by smaller countries.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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