A SCOTTISH veteran has hit out at JD Vance’s “dishonourable and shameful” comments dismissing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Cliff Purvis, a former corporal who served in the Queen’s Own Highlanders and the Royal Army Medical Corps in the Falklands and the Gulf War, said the US vice president’s comments amounted to a “direct attack on European nations by America”.
Vance sparked outrage after he dismissed the UK and France’s plans to police a future peace deal between Russia and Ukraine as “20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
Purvis, of the Veterans for Independence campaign group, told The National: “The more I hear and read about JD Vance, the more I am convinced that being allowed access to the media should involve some sort of competence test.
“It was an extremely dishonourable and shameful remark by him that claimed no European Army had been to war for 30–40 years.
“This dismissal of the crucial fact that the only time Article 5 of Nato was invoked was after 9/11 by the Americans, all the other coalition countries came to America’s aid and helped them fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and as such is nothing short of disappointing and disparaging.”
Some 457 British troops were killed over the 20 year deployment in Afghanistan while 179 troops and civilian staff were killed in the Iraq War.
Purvis, who also served in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, added: “This remark is a direct attack on European Nations by America.
“Both Vance and [Donald] Trump have no first-hand experience of war and such should at the very least get their staffers to do basic research.
“The current administration in the White House can no longer be termed ‘leaders of the free world’.”
Vance later walked back his comments and described his critics as “dishonest”.
The vice president said: “This is absurdly dishonest. I don’t even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond.
"But let’s be direct: there are many countries who are volunteering (privately or publicly) support who have neither the battlefield experience nor the military equipment to do anything meaningful."
