\u201cWhat do you say, sensationalist comments to try [to] take a position that really is really ill-informed.\u201d<\/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
\u201cI would be pretty upset if I had lost friends or a relative in those operations, particularly down in Kandahar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d 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\u2019s pretty poor form.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strombom said he had particular respect for British troops.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump’s NATO Afghanistan claim condemned as insult to fallen troops. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Trump hadn\u2019t really understood the situation, Strombom said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strombom doubted Trump would apologise for his comments.<\/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
\u201cWe responded to the call for assistance alongside our partners, and our people served willingly and with professionalism in challenging and often dangerous conditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK joined the US in Afghanistan from 2001, after it invoked Nato\u2019s collective defence clause following the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[104438,27129,5782,38268,42,145052,30703,43,5970,19993,40,38,41,39,19096,9347],"class_list":["post-249332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-afghan","tag-blackwell","tag-comments","tag-finn","tag-headlines","tag-illinformed","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-really","tag-slams","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trumps","tag-veteran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249332","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=249332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}