伦敦 — 美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯在周末于田纳西大学的演讲中似乎淡化了其他北约成员在阿富汗战争中的作用，引发英国和波兰政府的批评。
LONDON — The British and Polish governments have criticized U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, after he appeared to downplay the role fellow NATO members played in the Afghanistan war.
英国首相府10号唐宁街与波兰外长拉多斯瓦夫·西科尔斯基一起回击赫格塞斯。赫格塞斯在演讲中称，很少有北约盟国“实际参与了动能行动”。
No.10 Downing Street joined Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski in pushing back at Hegseth, who told an audience at the University of Tennessee over the weekend that few NATO allies were “actually involved in kinetic operations.”
“我曾是阿富汗的一名上尉，我们会去喀布尔的总部，那里会有50面国旗，”赫格塞斯回忆道。“看到50个不同国家为北约联盟和ISAF（国际安全援助部队）任务作出贡献，这是一件美好的事情。”
“I was a captain in Afghanistan and we would go to the headquarters in Kabul and there would be 50 flags at the headquarters,” Hegseth recalled. “It was a beautiful thing to see, 50 different countries contributing to the NATO alliance and the ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] mission there.”
但他补充道：“不过可能只有五个国家做出了贡献。实际上，到最后真正参与动能行动的可能只有“一或两个”。事实上，ISAF的补丁我们曾开玩笑说，它代表‘我看到了美国人在战斗’。”所有当时北约的28个成员国在2001年9月12日北约援引《北大西洋条约》第五条——北约的集体防御条款——之后，参与了由美国领导的阿富汗战争，这一天恰好是9/11恐怖袭击事件的次日。这是该条款在北约历史上唯一一次被援引。
But he added: “Except there were maybe five that contributed. It was actually closer to one or two that by the end were actually involved in kinetic operations. In fact the patch ISAF, we joked it meant ‘I Saw Americans Fighting’.”All of NATO’s then-28 members participated in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, after the alliance invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty – NATO’s collective defense clause – on September 12, 2001, a day after the terrorist attacks that took place on 9/11. It remains the only time the article has been invoked in alliance history.
周一，当被问及其言论时，英国首相安迪·伯纳姆的官方发言人指出，“数千名英国及盟国家庭为此战争做出了巨大牺牲，发挥了重要作用，以维护我们的价值观”，而“超过450名英国人员未能返回”。“他们的牺牲以及其他北约部队的牺牲，是为了集体安全并回应对我们盟友的攻击而作出的”，发言人继续说道。
Asked about his comments Monday, U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s official spokesperson pointed out that “thousands of British and allied families made huge sacrifices to play their significant part in that war and uphold our values,” while “more than 450 British personnel never returned.”“Their sacrifice and that of other NATO forces was made in the service of collective security and in response to an attack on our ally,” he continued.
我们对武装力量感到无比自豪，他们的服务和牺牲永远不会被遗忘。削弱他们的作用是错误的。
“We are incredibly proud of our armed forces, and their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten. And it is wrong to diminish their role.”
西科尔斯基周日在社交媒体上发文称，赫格塞思应当向44名在加兹尼省艰苦作战中牺牲的波兰士兵的家属重复他的话。这并不是美国政府首次质疑北约其他成员国在阿富汗战争中的贡献。
Sikorski said in a social media post Sunday that Hegseth should repeat his comments “to the families of 44 Polish soldiers who died who died securing the tough Ghazni province.”It’s not the first time fellow NATO members’ contribution to the Afghanistan war has been question by the U.S. government.
美国总统特朗普今年1月曾表示，非美军部队“稍微靠后了一点，稍微离开了前线”，此言在伦敦引发了愤怒。
U.S. President Donald Trump triggered anger in London in January after he said non-American forces “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines” during the war.