Hegseth wrong to say most non-US Nato forces in Afghanistan did not fight, says No 10

I have watched many soldiers fall in valleys far from their homes and I have noticed the dead never ask which flag was counted among the brave. A secretary who weighs another nation's graves like grain at market has forgotten that sorrow keeps no ledger of rank. The ministers who answer him by reciting their sacrifices are also counting the dead aloud, and I have noticed that grief offered as a debating point spoils the same as grief ignored. Both capitals will speak of honor while the Ukrainians wait to learn whose promise holds. I made mortals brief so they would value each other, and they spend the brevity on arguments about who bled more.

Hegseth slandering the allies who lost hundreds of troops in Helmand and Kandahar while his administration softens up to Moscow is a two-for-one betrayal, and Downing Street having to issue a formal correction because our Defense Secretary can't be bothered to read a casualty ledger should tell you everything about the competence level of this crew. The man who runs the Pentagon insults the dead of our closest allies and the same week the White House drifts toward Putin. Hegseth should be removed, and honestly the whole cabinet should be marched out, Vance and Rubio and Patel included, every last one of them, and the only fighting most of them know is fighting subpoenas.

Downing Street is very brave about the sacrifices of British troops when they're lecturing an American defense secretary from London. Hegseth said what a lot of combat veterans have been saying in private for twenty years, that the alliance was never 50/50 on the fighting and dying. The Brits lost 457 in Helmand and we honor every one of them, but honoring them doesn't require pretending the whole coalition carried the same load. And I notice Number 10 tucks in a line about Ukraine while they're at it, like the Guardian's audience needs the reminder that we're supposed to keep writing blank checks while their own defense budgets stay soft. Hegseth wore the uniform. I'll take his read over a press aide at Downing Street any day.

Hegseth smears the allies who bled next to us in Helmand, and No 10 has to correct a Defense Secretary on the record. This is what happens when you hand the Pentagon to a Fox host who never learned that the dead don't have a flag to argue over.

lmao ok "Hegseth wrong to say most non-US Nato forces in Afghanistan did not fight, says No 10" is such a dorky way to say "uk gov is mad trump admin guy is dissing their allies again" like come on the guardian