Donald Trump should have listened to Australian songwriter Fred Smith before he spoke ignorantly about the sacrifices of soldiers in Afghanistan.

Last week, Trump criticised NATO and in so doing said the non-US soldiers stayed “a little off the front lines” in ­Afghanistan. He offered no evidence, provided no support for his comment, just let it emerge into the light as a truth only he knew. It wasn’t the truth, and in the ensuing days, the leaders of the countries that fought in Afghanistan let it be known it wasn’t.

The British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called it “insulting and ­appalling.” As did other NATO leaders. In a mark from the norm the British Royal Family entered the fray. Prince Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan, said: “Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost. Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.”

Even Sir Rod Stewart came out in condemnation. He posted, “I may just be a humble rock star, I’m also a knight of the realm, and I have my opinions. I was born just after [World War II], and I’d like respect for our armed forces who fought and gave us our freedom, so it hurts me badly, deeply, that I read the draft dodger Trump is criticising our troops in Afghanistan for not being on the front line. We lost over 400 of our guys. Think of their parents, think about it, when Trump calls them almost like cowards. It’s unbearable.”

As much as Trump can backtrack, he modified his remarks, after somewhat soft royal intervention to praise the “great and very brave soldiers of the United Kingdom, will always be with the United States of America”. They were “among the greatest of all warriors”. But still, they were “second to none (except for the USA)”.

Australia operated alongside NATO forces in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021. Among the nearly 40,000 Australian troops who served, 263 service personnel were wounded and 47 were killed.

Asked about Trump’s remarks, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said they weren’t acceptable. Our soldiers “were certainly on the frontlines … along with our other allies to defend democracy and freedom and to defend our national interests. They deserve our respect.”

Enter Fred Smith, diplomat and songwriter. Smith was in Uruzgan Province in southern Afghanistan for about two years from July 2009, as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade representative, working with the First Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force. He witnessed life at the frontline for the soldiers and the Afghans. He took copious notes, which would result in the album Dust of Uruzgan, and a book of the same name, bookended with The Sparrows of Kabul, Smith’s personal account of Australia’s mission to evacuate visa and passport holders from Kabul airport in the two weeks after the city fell in August 2021.

The album title track tells the story of soldier Benjamin Ranaudo through the eyes of a mate, Private Paul Warren. Ranaudo died and Warren lost his foot when an improvised explosive device went off while they were on patrol near Tarin Kowt. Smith was at Ranaudo’s memorial service, the first of more than 12 he attended. He has met both sides of war’s tragedies, the loss of life, the ripple effects on family and friends, and the holes that are punctured in life when death occurs.

This is no more so than in his _Sapper’s Lullaby_, which relates the story of soldiers Darren Smith and Jacob Moerland, who were killed. In his book The Dust of Uruzgan, Smith writes: I often think about the guys who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, like Ben Ranuado, Snowy Moerland or Robbie Poate, who died too young, or like Dave Savage and Paul Warren, whose lives and limbs were changed forever; or Crash McKinney, who never made it home for the birth of his child. And I think I owe it to them to be happy here in this land of plenty. And I owe it to them to tell their stories. What else can you do?”

After Trump’s remarks circled the globe, a video was posted of Smith singing _Battle of Derapet_, which tells the story of Crash McKinney. The power of the song, and indeed all of Smith’s songs about the troops in Afghanistan (or political events in the Pacific, such as in Bougainville or the Solomons, where he also worked) is in bringing home to others the intimacy of a life on the frontline, out on the edges, far from the familiar.

Trump should have a listen. He won’t, but he should. These songs have no borders.