PETERBOROUGH, England — Helmand province's shades of yellow, cookies wrapped in pink foil andsouthern Afghanistan'ssweaty heat have imprinted on Lance Cpl. Cassidy Little's mind.
But then his memory of that day in May 2011 fractures. One moment he was walking through an unsecured compound with his patrol, the next he was on his back, staring into swirling dust and black smoke, his body unresponsive. He had been hit by a blast froman improvised explosive devicethat had been buried underground for months.
"I felt like I had dust from my tonsils to my prostate," Little, 44, told NBC News this week in Peterborough, a cathedral city 75 milesnorth of London. As a trained medic, Little pressed a fellow Royal Marines commando to be honest about the damage to his right leg. Eventually, he received the reply: "It's gone."
The same explosion killed two of Little's friends and an interpreter as their patrol pushed into a hostile area not yet controlled by NATO — part ofthe same allied missionthat President Donald Trump denigrated last week.
"They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, and they did," Trump said. "They stayed a little back, a little off the front lines."
Taking long pauses as he spoke and appearing to rein in his frustration, Little responded to Trump's comments that cast doubt on whether NATO allies would be there for America "if we ever needed them."
"When I was hit, I was so far in front of the front line that I couldn't see the front line in my rearview mirror," he said.
Trump's assertions about NATO forces not coming to the United States' defense are incorrect: More than 1,000NATO troopsfrom over 25 countries, including 457 British service personnel, died in Afghanistan. Double that number were seriously wounded. Around 2,400 U.S. service members died in the conflict between 2001 and 2021.
The war, launchedafter the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attackson the U.S., remains the only time that the alliance's collective defense clause, known as Article 5, has been invoked.
After stoking outrage among Britons ranging from Prince Harry toPrime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump sought to backtrack.
Trump praised British troops as "among the greatest of all warriors" in a post on Truth Social, while stopping short of an apology.
For Little, who now works as an actor while serving as an ambassador for a veterans welfare group, Trump's comments sparked an initial surge of anger before he forced himself to calm down. But the president's appraisal of British troops, without mentioning the dozens of other nations who lost soldiers during the conflict, was "not an apology," he said.
"I stood shoulder to shoulder with the Estonians. I stood shoulder to shoulderwith the Danish," he said, sitting in a vape shop and cafe, in a corner of the room dedicated to veterans. "These are people that I've served with on the ground, including the Americans and the Canadians."
Trump's remarks caused fury across Europe and NATO countries, reopening old wounds and casting fresh doubt on the future of an alliance that has already cost so much for people like Little.
Alice Rufo, the minister delegate at theFrench Defense Ministry, laid a wreath at a monument in downtown Paris on Monday dedicated to those who died for France in overseas operations. Speaking to reporters, she said it was crucial to show that "we do not accept that their memory be insulted."
Denmark lost 44 soldiers in Afghanistan, a higher number of fatalities than any other ally apart from the U.S. when taken as a proportion of its population of less than 6 million.
Denmark's leaders described Trump's comments as deeply disrespectful to allied sacrifices, and veterans joined a silent march in the capital,Copenhagen, braving subzero temperatures on Saturday to decry the president's remarks.
A minute of silence was also observed outside the U.S. Embassy, where earlier this week veterans had placed a flag for each Danish soldier killed in the conflict.
Backlash
In Britain, Starmer — usually deliberate in his dealings with Trump — called the comments "insulting and frankly appalling," saying he was not surprised they had caused "such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured."
Prince Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan, said the sacrifices of allied troops "deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect," adding: "I served there. I lost friends there."
Nikki Scott's husband, Cpl. Lee Scott, was killed in Afghanistan while serving in the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, leaving behind his wife and two children.
Holding a black book containing briefing notes that her husband had taken, she said in a video posted on LinkedIn: "I believe in the difference he and all our armed forces made, and no one should tell us otherwise."
The sweeping response speaks to wider concerns about what Trump's stance could mean for the future of NATO and its relationship with the U.S., already under increasing strain as Russia seeks to test the alliance's resolve.
"Equivocation from Washingtonweakens deterrence, emboldens Moscow, and risks persuading soldiers on the ground that NATO no longer carries the saliency or seriousness it once did," said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank in London.
"While the remarks change little for soldiers fighting in Ukraine," he said, "strategically, they are deeply corrosive."
Little recalls the commitment of NATO forces firsthand after the attacks on the U.S. in 2001, and the contrast between that reality and political rhetoric gives him pause.
"For the rest of us that were upfront, getting pulled apart, losing dads and brothers and husbands, we heard the call, we came running, and we happily went out there," he said.
"The trust that NATO has America's back has not been eroded. What's been eroded here is the trust that America has ours."
