Anthony Albanese condemned for accepting ‘half-arsed’ Trump apology after denigrating Afghan war allies

RSL national president Peter Tinley called on Anthony Albanese to more strongly condemn President Donald Trump for denigrating the contribution of America’s allies to the war in Afghanistan.

“I think the Prime Minister could insist, for the well-being of Australian service personnel, that the president make a specific comment around the years and years of service in Afghanistan,” the former SAS soldier and West Australian Labor minister told ABC radio on Monday.

President Trump, who ordered the withdrawal of US troops in 2020, suggested at the weekend that NATO troops “stayed a little off the front lines”.

Mr Albanese on Monday said Mr Trump’s remarks were “not acceptable” but did not demand an apology from the president, who partially backtracked from his inflammatory remarks after being criticised by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“I note that President Trump has made a new statement overnight as well in which he’s acknowledged the contribution,” Mr Albanese said.

David Savage, a former war crimes investigator badly injured by a Taliban attack in Afghanistan, said he was upset at Mr Albanese’s weak response to Mr Trump’s “half-arsed” apology.

“No one has asked for an apology,” he told The Nightly. “That’s what makes it worse. When I was in a wheelchair they [politicians] would line up to have photos with me because I’m an ambassador for [the charity] Soldier On. When they could actually do something they are nowhere to be seen.”

The father of an Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan by a rogue soldier slammed Mr Trump for suggesting non-American troops hardly served in frontline roles.

Hugh Poate, whose 23-year-old son Private Robert Poate was killed in a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2012, said President Trump’s “ill-considered” comments showed he hadn’t given much thought to the families of the 41 Australians in Afghanistan, fighting the Taliban over two decades, in a US-led mission.

“It’s not what you would expect to hear from a statesman,” he told The Nightly. “It appears to me that he doesn’t really care what he’s done to my family.

“Because those guys were fighting on the frontline otherwise they wouldn’t be dead. They wouldn’t have been killed in action. I don’t think he mentioned Australian soldiers - I just don’t think he’s thought the issue through before he made public comment.”

Private Robert Poate died more than 13 years ago, alongside Corporal Stjepan Milosevic and Sapper James Martin after an Afghan army deserter, known as Hekmatullah, ambushed them in a so-called “green on blue” attack while they were playing cards at a forward operating base near Tarin Kowt in the Uruzgan province.

Despite being sentenced to death in 2013, Hekmatullah lives freely in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, most recently in the capital Kabul.

While Australia isn’t a NATO member, Mr Poate said Mr Trump’s comments hurt given Australia was a member of ANZUS and had also fought in controversial US-led wars from Vietnam to Iraq.

Mr Poate is particularly upset that Zalmay Khalilzad, a US diplomatic representative with Afghanistan during the first Trump presidency, had failed to bring Hekmatullah to justice.

“Our son was killed from an insider attack - now what upsets me about the Americans here is when Khalilzad negotiated a ceasefire with the Taliban, he agreed to a Taliban request for all prisoners to be released,” he said.

“I would like to see Donald Trump deal with Hekmatullah - his death sentence has not been revoked.”

Mr Albanese said the families of the fallen would be hurt, and “they deserve our absolute respect, admiration”.

“The bravery that was shown by 40,000 Australians who served in Afghanistan, they were certainly on the front lines,” he said.

More than 26,000 members of the Australian Defence Force were deployed in Afghanistan in the two decades after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.