‘I risked my life to save US soldiers – This is what I would tell Donald Trump’ | UK | News

A former RAF doctor who evacuated countless soldiers from the frontline in Afghanistan has revealed what he would tell Donald Trump if he got the chance. Liz McConaghy deployed to Afghanistan ten times, often working as a crew member on Medical Evacuation Response Flights (MERT) collecting casualties in the middle of combat.

Ms McConaghy responded to comments made in the Fox News interview that once again suggested NATO allies were not fighting on the front lines. Mr. Trump reiterated comments he made earlier this month about his doubts about how trustworthy NATO members would be if the United States called on NATO members in the future.

He said: “I’ve always said, will they be there if we need them? That’s really the biggest test. I’m not sure about that. We’ve never needed them.”

“They’ll say they sent troops to Afghanistan or something. And they did. They stayed back a little bit, off the front lines.”

Ms. McConaghy reminded the US President that NATO took action in the only incident in which Article 5 was triggered by the US, following the September 11 attacks.

He told the Daily Express how he wanted to show Donald Trump A list of all the US soldiers he and his comrades risked their lives to save.

He said: “We took so many Americans, we risked our lives to save them, that it really hurts to hear him say. I want to show him the log book of every flight we took and every American we took. We risked our lives to bring back the soldiers and save the lives of everyone, regardless of where they came from.”

“The last body I collected was an American soldier. We took the plane to Forward Operating Base FOB Edinburgh in Helmand, and since it was secure we were able to turn off the rotors as a sign of respect while the American soldiers placed the flag around it and paid their respects.”

“We stood on the ramp as his coffin was being loaded onto the plane and treated him with the respect we would treat a British soldier. If I ever met him, I would tell him that.”

He added: “We would go down to the front line, we had to get down to where the casualties were and we couldn’t wait for the fighting to stop while we did that. We would get ambushed by the Taliban because they knew we were coming and MERT is a high value target. If they brought it down it would be a huge victory of heart and mind for them.”

A total of 457 British soldiers serving in Afghanistan lost their lives; this was the country with the second highest number of military deaths after the United States.

Liz wrote a bestselling book It details the aftermath of service and, contrary to the president’s comments, highlights issues that are daily struggles for thousands of veterans deployed to the front lines and beyond.

He continued: “I didn’t do it well in the years that followed and I ended up having a breakdown. One night I had manic insomnia and I ended up Googling all the recruits I had recruited, humanizing them, and that led to me overdosing and trying to end my life. That caught up with me.”

“His comments make you feel left out, and I know a lot of people feel that way today. I’ve seen mothers of murdered boys reach out to me and say it wasn’t in vain, but having the leader of the free world tell us that we don’t matter and that he should have more respect makes that very difficult. What he said will have triggered a lot of people’s PTSD.”

His comments were echoed by former Parachute Regiment officer Andrew Fox, who served three tours in Afghanistan, including one with US Special Forces.

He said: “The emotions I felt upon hearing the comments can best be described as shock, anger and betrayal. Shock and anger at how easily the sacrifice of friends is forgotten and betrayed because we served alongside them. I have an American combat infantryman badge and jump wings, so for their Commander in Chief to say that what they said was a disgrace.”

In his second term in office, Trump has significantly dismantled the NATO alliance after being highly critical during his first term.

His continued pursuit of Greenland, a NATO region, and his pacification of Vladimir Putin, in contrast to his hard-line approach to Ukraine, have left the allies struggling to keep the alliance together.

Fox believes his latest comments are a way to weaken the foundations of the alliance rather than directly pulling the country back.

He added: “He’s undermining NATO, in short. With his bumbling little brain, he’s maybe trying to inspire other NATO allies to increase defense spending, but he’s undermining the alliance. The problem is that NATO is now a zombie. The US won’t come to anyone’s defense, and if there’s no Article 5 you can trust, there’s no NATO.”