OPINION
JD Vance could do with a little humility (Image: Getty)
In common with all of Britain’s military veterans I was disgusted and horrified by US Vice President JD Vance’s recent remarks on our Armed Forces. In an interview with populist US television channel Fox News, Vance denigrated Britain’s past military record, calling the UK “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
Well, he either isn’t on a nodding acquaintance with his history or has a very poor memory, or most likely both. For the record, the UK supported the USA in its military adventure in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, and in the longer Afghanistan campaign of 2001 – 2021. I found myself in and in the First Gulf War in 1990-91 in support of the US Operation Desert Storm, as did some 35,000 of my comrades in uniform. Forty-seven British servicemen died in that conflict.
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One hundred and seventy-nine British citizens died in the Iraq conflict of 2003, and in the 20-year war in another 457 British service personnel were killed. A sobering toll for a country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years, don’t you think?
Vance seems to make a habit of engaging his mouth before his brain – given that the latter may not be that impressive in the first place – and he might be well advised to stop cos-playing as Trump’s attack dog. He isn’t very good at it.
In passing perhaps we should remind the Vice President that, when Europe was facing existential threats and fighting wars of national survival in the Great and Second World Wars, the USA turned up roughly three years late on both occasions.
And when they chose to go it alone in Vietnam – with apologies to our Australian and New Zealand cousins who were there – they lost.
Vance has been forced into backtracking on his remarks in the face of a global backlash, but the damage has been done. It only reinforces the impression that the USA under the Trump administration has become an unreliable ally almost overnight and that European countries will have to look to their own from now on.
And yet the Trump/Vance stance is riddled with contradictions. At the same time as the many threats to remove the USA from NATO, a recurring theme now approaching “boy shouts wolf” levels, we learn that there is a possibility that the Americans might be looking to store nuclear weapons, possibly at RAF Lakenheath.
Two US B-52H strategic bombers have just returned to the USA having participated in bombing exercise in Turkey, flying out of RAF Fairford.
“Employing weapons alongside our partners and Allies demonstrates the collective strength through unity of NATO,” Lt. Col. Joseph Cangealose, commander of the 69th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron reportedly said.
And, as at July 2024, there were 10,058 active-duty US military personnel in the United Kingdom spread across roughly 13 bases. This includes civilian staff and family members.
Looking further afield, the US regularly uses RAF Akrotiri to mount military and humanitarian operations in the Middle East, and has access to the currently contentious British base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
There are many other examples of cooperation. The point being that alliances work in many directions. Perhaps it is time for European leaders to play hardball with Trump, Vance, Hegseth et al and call their bluff. Sure, the USA wields a bigger stick, but Trump’s more outlandish outbursts strike me more as opening gambits in a business negotiation – go in hard while being prepared to concede later.
Personally I wouldn’t trust the current occupants of the White House as far as I can spit. As the old adage has it, “he who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon”.
Some rapid repair work is required before we can trust the Americans again – if we ever will.
Lt Col Stuart Crawford is a political and defence commentator and former army officer. Sign up for his podcasts and newsletters at