Trump derides allies' role in Afghanistan, and Starmer doesn't buy it

Amid unprecedented public controversy, the 'special relationship' between Washington and London, the historically closest and most crucial alliance of the transatlantic axis that for decades has linked Europe to the US, is creaking. Clamorously triggering the latest fuse was once again Donald Trump, targeting - in an interview granted to Fox, on his way back from the Davos Forum - the military and bloody contribution offered by NATO partners (including Italy) in the 20 years of invasion of Afghanistan following the 11 September 2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York: with words described as openly 'offensive' by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who went so far as to call for the first time openly for a (unlikely) public 'apology' from the American president.

The Donald essentially dismissed as irrelevant the role of the contingents of friendly countries on the war outcomes of that conflict (which resulted in the humiliating retreat of 2021): contingents that, according to him, would have kept 'at a distance' from the front line. arguments' that are not new on the part of the magnate president, who at Davos had already embarrassed NATO's trusted secretary general, Mark Rutte, who was forced to recall how little more than half of the more than 4,000 Western soldiers killed over the years in Afghanistan wore uniforms bearing the insignia of the stars and stripes. But which this time bordered on an accusation of cowardice and could not go unheeded in the UK: in remembrance of the tens of thousands of men and women sent over there over a twenty-year period and the 457 who lost their lives. Hence the outraged and bipartisan reaction that erupted on the island, from the political world to the media, from veterans to the families of the fallen.

The first to set fire to the dust from the ranks of the ruling party was Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Commons, who branded Trump's firing 'an absolute insult'. Also offended was Conservative opposition MP Ben Obese-Jecty, a former career officer called to serve in Afghanistan, who said 'it is sad to see the sacrifice of our nation and our NATO partners depreciated in such bad taste'. While criticism has even come from Nigel Farage, tribune of Reform Uk, the Trump-inspired right-wing party that has been leading the polls for a year.

"How dare Trump?", then recoiled Ed Davey, leader of the centrists of the Liberal Democratic Party who have always been hostile to the tycoon and who for months has been denouncing the prime minister's imputed cordial attitude towards big brother overseas.

In this case, Sir Keir - already shaken by the escalation of the disputes over Ukraine, Greenland or the so-called Board of Peace for Gaza (where London has ended up leaving only Tony Blair, in a personal capacity, for the time being), and ready to leave next week for China in search of some alternative shore - could not back down. After having a Downing Street spokesman remind him of the value of the 'sacrifice' made in Afghanistan by the British and allies 'in the service of collective security and the joint response to the 9/11 attack', he spoke out: 'I find President Trump's statements offensive and frankly disconcerting, and I am not surprised that they have caused so much pain to the families of those killed or injured,' he cut in. He then added that, in his shoes, he would 'certainly apologise'. Even harsher was the comment by the Deputy Minister of Defence, Al Carns, who called The Donald's remarks 'utterly ridiculous'.