K2RULEZ
Elite Member
Some U.S. military veterans and European leaders are pushing back after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s weekend remarks to ROTC cadets and military recruits that downplayed the cooperation of countries that supported the U.S. in Afghanistan. Speaking at the University of Tennessee on Saturday, Hegseth suggested that only “one or two” allies that were part of the NATO-led coalition for the mission were actively involved in combat toward the end of the conflict. “I was a captain in Afghanistan, and we would go to headquarters in Kabul and there would be 50 flags,” Hegseth said, recalling his deployment in front of a crowd of future Army officers.
“It was a beautiful thing … except there were like maybe five that contributed,” he said. “It was actually closer to one or two that by the end were actually involved in kinetic operations.” Hegseth poked fun at the abbreviation on the patch worn by troops from dozens of nations deployed to Afghanistan serving under the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. “We joked that it meant, ‘I saw Americans fighting,’” Hegseth said. Retired Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commander of U.S. Army Europe, called Hegseth’s comments “shameful.” More than a thousand allied service members were killed in Afghanistan “fighting alongside” U.S. troops, he wrote Sunday on X. “Why would the Secretary think it was appropriate to disparage our Allies in front of these young Cadets, future Officers?” said Hodges, who deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 as the director of operations for Regional Command South in Kandahar.
Marine veteran and former F/A-18 pilot Amy McGrath said she “shared tents and flew missions in the same skies” while serving two tours in Afghanistan alongside allied troops. “When our SecDef diminishes their sacrifice, he damages trust with allies we may need again,” said McGrath, who earlier this year lost in the Democratic Party primary for a Kentucky seat in the U.S. Senate. A total of 51 NATO and partner nations deployed troops to Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 as part of the International Security Assistance Force. Originally deployed to provide security in and around Kabul, the ISAF gradually expanded to cover the whole country by the second half of 2006, and its troops increasingly became engaged in fighting a growing insurgency, according to NATO.
At its peak, more than 130,000 personnel were deployed, according to NATO. The bulk of the casualties in Afghanistan came from the United States. A total of 2,465 U.S. service members died during the nearly 20-year conflict, according to figures provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2021. More than 1,100 troops from NATO and partner nations also died in Afghanistan, according to those same figures.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday that Hegseth was wrong to diminish the role played by international forces. Afghanistan war operations cost the lives of 457 personnel from the United Kingdom, various British media outlets reported Monday. “Their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten, and it is wrong to diminish their role,” the British prime minister’s spokesperson said. Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, also challenged Hegseth’s comments. “Tell that ... to the families of 44 Polish soldiers who died securing the tough Ghazni province,” Sikorski said on X. More than 33,000 Polish soldiers and defense personnel served in Afghanistan for almost 20 years until 2021, according to a report by public broadcaster Polish Radio. During that time, 43 Polish soldiers and one civilian paramedic died, and more than 200 people were wounded, the report said. In his remarks to the ROTC cadets, Hegseth said the quip about the ISAF patch may have been joke. “But it’s demoralizing when you feel like it’s not burden sharing,” he added. “It’s actually a burden. Having a flag and being part of a coalition is one thing. Actually having capability is another.”
