{"id":248802,"date":"2026-01-24T01:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248802\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T01:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:39:09","slug":"really-ill-informed-afghan-veteran-slams-trumps-nato-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248802\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Really ill-informed’: Afghan veteran slams Trump’s NATO comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/p>\n

\nFormer army major Simon Strombom is the managing director of the NZ Remembrance Army.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n

A former army major is calling comments made by US President Donald Trump ill-informed and sensationalist.<\/p>\n

Trump has angered allies, claiming NATO troops “stayed a little back<\/a>” from frontlines in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The comments have drawn ire from the likes of UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, who labelled the remarks “insulting and frankly appalling”, urging the president to apologise, according to CNN.<\/p>\n

Roughly a third of those Allied personnel killed during the war came from non-US forces, including 10 New Zealanders.<\/p>\n

The UK joined the US in Afghanistan from 2001, after it invoked NATO’s collective defence clause following the 9\/11 terror attacks.<\/p>\n

More than 450 British soldiers were killed.<\/p>\n

Former army major Simon Strombom<\/a> is the managing director of the NZ Remembrance Army and served in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

He also received a Distinguished Service Decoration.<\/p>\n

Strombom told RNZ that he commanded troops from NATO nations and found them exceptionally professional.<\/p>\n

“I was heavily exposed to the professionalism and the challenges that the NATO, particularly British and the Canadian, troops had,” he said.<\/p>\n

The comments were ill-conceived, Strombom said.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\nUS President Donald Trump claimed NATO troops “stayed a little back” from the frontlines in Afghanistan.
\nPhoto: Mandel Ngan\/AFP\/Getty Images via CNN Newsource\n<\/p>\n

“What do you say, sensationalist comments to try and take a position that really is really ill-informed.”<\/p>\n

Strombom said it would be hard for those who had lost loved ones in the conflict to hear those comments from a US president.<\/p>\n

“I would be pretty upset if I had lost friends or a relative in those operations, particularly down in Kandahar,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’d be pretty hard for a family to have suffered such a loss and then to hear comments like that, just basically undermining the actual sacrifice of the families, it’s pretty poor form.”<\/p>\n

Strombom said he had particular respect for British troops.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always had a hell of a lot of respect for the discipline of British troops, and the professionalism of them, even down to their territorial army,” he said.<\/p>\n

Trump hadn’t really understood the situation, Strombom said.<\/p>\n

“The majority of the weight of the coalition headquarters, there were 48 countries in the headquarters we were in, America made up probably a quarter of those troops, but the rest of them were predominantly from NATO.”<\/p>\n

Strombom doubted Trump would apologise for his comments.<\/p>\n

‘Great pride’ in those deployed to conflict<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Judith Collins said the country took great pride in the professionalism, courage, and commitment of all who served in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

“We responded to the call for assistance alongside our partners, and our people served willingly and with professionalism in challenging and often dangerous conditions,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We continue to honour the memory of New Zealand Defence Force personnel who lost their lives in Afghanistan, and we acknowledge the enduring loss felt by their families, friends, and colleagues.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former army major Simon Strombom is the managing director of the NZ Remembrance Army. Photo: Supplied A former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-248802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}