Over 1,000 non-US NATO troops died in Afghanistan and at least double that number were seriously wounded in supporting US policy there.
It is for this reason that many in the UK have condemned Donald Trump, who claimed during the war in Afghanistan that NATO troops stayed “a little off the frontlines”.
Beyond the outrage among British veterans of the Afghan operation and the pain of the families who lost people, there is another point that matters in Whitehall: Britain went into the Afghan operations with the US from the very beginning, and did not come out until the very end, when the US itself came out.
On the night of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001, which began the whole Afghan operation, all US airspace was totally closed.
Only one foreign aircraft was in the air that night – the plane carrying Britain’s intelligence chiefs to consult with their American counterparts.
Britain had 20,000 troops just finishing a big exercise in Oman right then. London was ready to send them straight to Afghanistan if necessary.
“No”, said the Americans, “we will do this differently; special forces only”.
So British special forces were immediately deployed into the mountains of the south and the Tora Bora complex to work with their US colleagues in seeking out Taliban leaders and fighters.
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When the US transitioned to a bigger Afghan operation in 2006, it was the British who worked with the Dutch and the Canadians to create a NATO operation to bolster the whole American effort.
Three American presidents then successively pulled the plug on the commitment – Barack Obama, Donald Trump in his first term and then Joe Biden.
Read more:
Trump’s words are a gut punch to families of those killed
‘The US president is wrong’ says Sir Nicholas Kay
When the chaotic, brutal end finally came on 30 August 2021, British forces were still there, with the US, till the last transports left Kabul.
As many in the British policy establishment have said over the years, when it comes to the Americans, we share their failures and blunders as well as their successes.
That’s what good allies try to do.
