Prince Harry has spoken out after US President Donald Trump made remarks about NATO forces\u2019 role in Afghanistan, calling them \u201ca little off the frontlines.\u201d The Duke of Sussex, a former British Army officer who served in Afghanistan, emphasized the sacrifices made by allied troops and the lasting impact of the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In a statement, Prince Harry highlighted the hundreds of British service members who lost their lives following the invocation of Article 5<\/strong> in 2001\u2014the only time in NATO\u2019s history the collective defense clause has been triggered. He said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAllies answered that call. I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there. The United Kingdom alone had 457 service personnel killed. Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost. Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Prince Harry completed two tours in Afghanistan<\/strong>\u2014first for 10 weeks in Helmand Province between 2007 and 2008, and later in 2012 for 20 weeks with the Army Air Corps. His experiences in the conflict inspired him to create the Invictus Games<\/strong> in 2014, a sporting event for wounded and injured veterans, for which he remains a dedicated patron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Duke\u2019s statement followed President Trump\u2019s comments suggesting that NATO troops \u201cstayed a little back, a little off the frontlines\u201d during the war. The remarks sparked criticism from several leaders, including UK Labour leader Keir Starmer<\/strong>, who described them as \u201cinsulting and frankly appalling\u201d and called for recognition of the sacrifices made by coalition forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prince Harry\u2019s response underlined the importance of remembering the service and dedication of all allied troops in Afghanistan and honoring the families affected by the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prince Harry has spoken out after US President Donald Trump made remarks about NATO forces\u2019 role in Afghanistan, calling them…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7692,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7690\/revisions\/7692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n