We, the ones on the front line
US President Donald Trump declared that the US never needed NATO.
And that NATO allies sent a few troops to Afghanistan, that they stay withdrawn, somewhere behind the front.
President Trump’s statements do not reflect the truth and are extremely painful.
The only time NATO activated Article 5 was in defense of the US, at 9/11.
NATO allies sent thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan, in Operation Enduring Freedom, to support American troops.
Thousands of NATO soldiers died in Afghanistan, fighting the terrorism that had just hit US territory, NATO territory, so hard and unjustly.
No, Mr. President Trump, we did not send “a few troops”, we did not stay “behind the front lines”.
Romania, a NATO member state, has sent almost 40,000 troops to the theater of operations in Afghanistan in 20 years of mission.
We assumed from the first moments the location of Kandahar, one of the most difficult, where Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had part of his headquarters.
Of the 40,000 Romanian soldiers, 29 died, Mr. President Trump.
Young people who had their whole lives ahead of them and who made the ultimate sacrifice for an ideal. Of allied solidarity and of support for America, which was then under great strain.
With all due respect, President Trump : do you see the cross at the top of the church in Kandahar? It was built by young Romanian troops, in the middle of the Afghan desert, where Osama planed sometimes to kill thousands of innocent people, many of them christians. But not only.
No, Mr. President Trump, with all due respect, we were not behind the front lines. We were always: We, the ones on the front line.
#RaduTudor
#NATO
