Britain and Poland have pushed back against US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he appeared to downplay the role of NATO allies in the war in Afghanistan, pointing to the hundreds of allied troops who were killed during the nearly two-decade conflict.
Hegseth, speaking Saturday at the University of Tennessee, recalled seeing dozens of countries represented at the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, in Kabul, but said relatively few were involved in combat operations.
“There were maybe five that contributed,” Hegseth said, adding that toward the end of the war, the number involved in “kinetic operations” was closer to “one or two.” He also recalled a joke among some U.S. troops that ISAF stood for “I Saw Americans Fighting.”
The remarks drew criticism from the British government and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
According to Politico, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday that Hegseth was wrong to diminish the role of British and other allied forces, noting that 457 British personnel were killed during operations in Afghanistan.
“Thousands of British and allied families made huge sacrifices to play their significant parts in that war and uphold our values,” the spokesperson said.
“Their sacrifice and that of other NATO forces was made in the service of collective security and in response to an attack on our ally,” the spokesperson added. “Their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten, and it is wrong to diminish their role.”
Sikorski also challenged Hegseth’s remarks, pointing to the deaths of Polish personnel who served in Afghanistan.
“Tell that … to the families of 44 Polish soldiers who died securing the tough Ghazni province,” Sikorski wrote on X. More than 33,000 Polish military personnel served in Afghanistan during the conflict, according to Polish public broadcaster figures cited by Stars and Stripes.
NATO invoked Article 5, its collective-defense clause, for the first and only time after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. NATO and partner countries subsequently deployed forces to Afghanistan under ISAF, which at its peak included more than 130,000 personnel.
More than 1,100 troops from NATO members and partner countries other than the United States were killed during the war, while 2,465 U.S. service members died, according to figures provided to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in 2021.
Hegseth acknowledged that his reference to ISAF was a joke but said the experience reflected frustrations over burden-sharing within the alliance.
The dispute follows similar criticism earlier this year after U.S. President Donald Trump said non-American NATO forces had stayed “a little off the front lines” during the Afghanistan war, comments that also prompted criticism from US allies.
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