by Bill Heaney
Donald Trump was “wrong” to diminish the role of Nato and British troops in Afghanistan, Downing Street has said, after the US president claimed allies stayed away from the front line.
Trump claimed that Nato sent “some troops” but “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”, sparking outrage from veterans and their families.
The mother of one severely injured soldier Ben Parkinson deemed it the “ultimate insult”.
The most high profile Scottish soldier in the aftermath of Afghanistan was JJ Chalmers, son of the former Renton Trinity Church minister John Chalmers, who was also Clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
JJ CHalmers was a Royal Marine, whose regiment was among several UK allies to join the US in Afghanistan after Nato’s collective security clause was invoked for the first and only time in its history following the 9/11 attacks. During the conflict, 457 British service personnel were killed.
Article 5 of Nato states that an attack on one member is considered an attack against all.
But Trump told Fox News on Thursday that he was “not sure” the military alliance would be there for the US “if we ever needed them”.
“We’ve never needed them,” he said, adding: “We have never really asked anything of them.”
“They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” he said, “and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”.
Responding today (Friday), the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “The president was wrong to diminish the role of Nato troops, including British forces.”
He added that Nato troops made sacrifices “in the service of collective security and in response to an attack on our ally”.
Most of the 457 British troops who died serving in Afghanistan over a period of nearly 20 years were killed in Helmand province.
After sustaining horrific injuries in Helmand, JJ Chalmers fought back to make a new life as a TV presenter and disability advocate
In May 2011, while serving in Helmand Province as a Royal Marine, JJ Chalmers was severely injured in an IED blast. Years of surgery and rehabilitation followed. He became a patron of Help for Heroes charity, and in 2014 won bronze and gold in non-amputee cycling at the Invictus Games. He went on to present National Paralympic Day for Channel 4, and returned to the Invictus Games in 2016 as an ambassador.
As his career in television developed, he’s fronted sports segments for the BBC, presented BBC Sport’s coverage of the Commonwealth Games in Australia, and appeared in 2020’s Strictly Come Dancing. He is married with two children. In his Letter to My Younger Self, he talks about the comrades that he’s lost, and how Invictus gave him a renewed sense of purpose.
At 16, I was a class clown in school. I was pretty confident, pretty chirpy, had lots of friends. I was the stage manager of a theatre group. At the same time, I was a Royal Marine Cadet. Some people didn’t think it was cool, but I completely bought into the idea. I’d already spent time with these ordinary blokes that did an extraordinary job and what really struck me was that they went to work every day, doing something amazing, with their best friends. This was the early 2000s. I was also a big rap fan, so my heroes were as likely to be Tupac as a Royal Marine.
I grew up believing you were part of a community and you should contribute. My sister’s a nurse, my brother’s a teacher – we’ve always played our part. A lot of it comes from our parents. My old man’s a minister, so we could see the community filling a room on a Sunday, and my mum and dad played an active role in nurturing and looking after it. When I left school, I did two things simultaneously – I went to university to study to be a teacher and joined the Royal Marines as a reservist. But I had 40-odd years of a teaching career ahead of me and the Marines is a young man’s game, so I wanted to make the most of it. I had aspirations of going to Afghanistan and thought I would come back to teaching. I’m still a teacher to this day. I pay my subscription to the General Teacher’s Council every year, just in case all this goes wrong and I need to put myself on a supply list.
For the person who woke up from that coma, I’d love to tell him it is going to be alright… but not just by magic. It will be alright because of the people around you, your friends and family, the surgeons and doctors. I knew nothing about this world I was about to become an expert in. But I’d tell him to keep plugging away, moving forward, trust the system, trust yourself – and just get up every morning. Don’t be frustrated that you were a Royal Marine Commando who jumped out of the back of helicopters and did extraordinary things. That may not ever be you again. But you will be something. All these doors have closed, but there’s plenty more doors and they’ll open up to you. It’s still up to you to get through them.
My disability is far more complicated than just being blown up. That’s not my disability, that’s my mechanism of injury. If you look at how my story was told on Strictly Come Dancing, it all tied back to my being blown up. While a story is a fascinating and sexy thing to tell, and we talk about “overcoming your disability”, you don’t actually overcome your disability. You can overcome the initial trauma, you can get healthy, you can get fit, but what you learn to do is live with your disability and adapt your circumstances.
In 2014, nobody knew what the Invictus Games were. I was sold on the picture that it would be a rehabilitation tool for us physically, mentally and socially. Invictus gave me an opportunity to discover my ambition again, and sense of worth and purpose and service. When I come back to present it, I understand what it is like to stand on that start line. More than that, I understand what it is like to get to that start line. I also want to ask why is it OK that certain buildings aren’t accessible to 10 per cent of the population. It’s about fixing the system. When I was being interviewed in the BBC studio at the first Invictus Games [in 2014], I turned to Jonathan Edwards – who was presenting at the time – and said: the next time we do an interview, I want to be sat in your chair. How do I make that happen? That was a crucial moment. He introduced me to individuals within the industry that still champion me and give me honest feedback.
I listened to the royal wedding, William’s wedding [to Kate Middleton in 2011], on a wind-up radio in Afghanistan. Seven years later, I was at a royal wedding [Prince Harry’s to Meghan Markle]. How that happened is utterly bizarre. Harry’s a friend of mine and someone I dearly love and wish the best for. I wouldn’t be stood here talking to you if it wasn’t for him. Not to lay all of it at his feet, but he’s one of the key people who created one of the key catalysts in my recovery. For that, I’ll be forever grateful.
I will see Harry out in The Hague. He will be out there doing what he does for Invictus – spearheading it, using his platform to improve the lives of others.
My younger self would be really proud of presenting the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. To be the first disabled presenter to do that is significant – but it’s not about me being the first, it’s about ensuring I’m not the last to do it. That’s what actually matters. So a kid growing up or someone lying in a hospital bed who has just acquired a disability can go, there’s the opportunity out there.
What is a Royal Marine doing in these TV studios? That’s how I felt when I first went into TV. I was a fish out of water. But when I was at the Olympics, I looked back to being a Marine and thought, what the heck was I doing there? I loved that sense of doing a difficult job with the best people in the world around you. These guys were still heroes to me. But I was blown up on a Friday searching a bomb-making factory in Helmand, Afghanistan. Now, that seems like a crazy thing to be doing. Back then, that was just a Friday afternoon in the Royal Marines.
I understand pacifists. But sometimes there is genuine evil in this world and somebody needs to stand up to it
Last summer, when Afghanistan descended into chaos, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I feel very drawn to conflict. And it feels the same again with Ukraine. We get such exposure through social media to the brutalities of it. I feel compelled to want to do something, but feel powerless. I understand those that detest war; pacifists. I can understand their philosophy. But sometimes there is genuine evil in this world and somebody needs to stand up to it.
Hundreds of Briutish soldiers and more suffered injuries and lost limbs – including Cpl Andy Reid who lost both his legs and his right arm after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan.
“Not a day goes by when we’re not in some kind of pain, physically or mentally reflecting on that conflict,” he told BBC Breakfast.
Reid recalled working with American soldiers during his time in Afghanistan, adding: “If they were on the front line and I was stood next to them, clearly we were on the front line as well.”
The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to oust the Taliban, whom they said were harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks. Nato nations contributed troops and military equipment to the US-led war.
More than 3,500 coalition soldiers had died as of 2021, when the US withdrew from the country – about two-thirds of them Americans.
The UK suffered the second-highest number of military deaths in the conflict behind the US, which saw 2,461 fatalities.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK and Nato allies had “answered the US call” in 2001 and that British troops who were killed should be remembered as “heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation”.
Al Carns, minister for the armed forces who served several tours in Afghanistan, said Trump’s comments were “utterly ridiculous” and that “the world rallied to the support of the US”.
Far from staying away from the front line, Britain and Canada placed troops in the most dangerous provinces of all – the Taliban heartlands of Helmand and Kandahar.
In Helmand, the scene of the heaviest fighting, British troops were joined by Danish and Estonian soldiers. All suffered casualties in the heat of battle.
Diane Dernie, whose son Ben Parkinson suffered severe injuries when an Army Land Rover hit a mine near Musa Qala in 2006, said Trump’s words were “so insulting” and hard to hear.
The 41-year-old is currently recuperating after another operation, but Dernie told the BBC that Trump’s comments showed “a childish man trying to deflect from his own actions”.
Dernie has called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to “stand up for his own armed forces” and call out the US president.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the sacrifice of British and Nato troops deserved respect and she pushed for Starmer to ask for an apology from Trump .
“It’s complete nonsense,” Badenoch said. “I spoke to parents of young men who have lost their lives. It is a disgrace to denigrate their memory like that.
“There is too much careless talk from President Trump. He clearly doesn’t know the history of what happened. We mustn’t have these sorts of throwaway remarks.”
The BBC has approached the White House and the Pentagon for comment.
Elsewhere, there has been a swathe of political reaction from across Westminster, including Foreign Affairs Committee chair and Labour MP Emily Thornberry.
She told BBC Question Time on Thursday that Trump “has deliberately been trying to undermine us, which has been trying to undermine Nato”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey criticised the US president’s remarks and said: “Trump avoided military service five times. How dare he question their sacrifice.”
Trump received five deferments from a military draft during the Vietnam War – four for academic reasons and one for bone spurs, a calcium build-up in the heels.
Former Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, who recently defected to Reform UK, said the comments were “offensive and wrong”.
Trump has published a number of private messages between himself and leaders including Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Støre.
In the last few weeks, Trump has made comments about acquiring Greenland – a semi-autonomous territory of fellow Nato ally Denmark.
Trump’s repeated remarks over ownership, threats of military action and tariffs against traditional European allies have rattled the transatlantic treaty.