April 21st, 2016

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The Danish Defence is once again preparing for deployment to the Middle East

Folketinget, the Danish Parliament, on Tuesday decided to support the ongoing fight against Islamic State.

Ground troops too
Denmark’s support for the US-led international campaign includes a team of well-groomed F-16s and a good old Hercules transporter.

And we’re also contributing boots on the ground. A Jægerkorpset (rangers) contingent will be part of the package and go into action under US co-ordination. This time the activities are not restricted to Iraq, but will also include operations in Syria.

This means business
Jægerkorpset is an elite unit that has been active on special operations over the years – in Afghanistan for example.

In 2007, details about clandestine operations in Iraq were leaked to the press, and in 2009, a former soldier published a book about it that the top brass tried to stop. It consequently cost the chief of defence and the minister of defence their jobs because of the primitive handling of the situation. It also resulted in a lot of unwelcome attention being paid to the armed forces.

Jægerkorpset is well trained and experienced. Former soldiers are now running security companies and have successfully protected Danish ships against pirates in the Red Sea.

However, it is the first time Jægerkorpset has been deployed in numbers. This indicates that Danish politicians are getting more steadfast in their wish to fight terrorism. Even though many warn that participation will attract terror attacks to Denmark.

IS must be stopped
One good reason is that IS is responsible for the stampede of refugees coming in from Syria that has almost destabilised the European Union.
Not only is IS endorsing mad terrorists worldwide, it is also apparently making money out of smuggling refugees and migrants to Europe. They stop at nothing and have to be stopped.

Points of contention
In Folketinget there is an ongoing debate about the release of all the documents concerning the decision to participate in the second war in Iraq more than a decade ago. The purpose is to investigate whether or not Parliament was fooled into the decision by false or misleading statements from the former prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

It seems that Liberal Alliance, the most vocal party, hasn’t even received the documents that have been declared unconfidential! They were however part of the vast majority that on April 19 took the decision, with only 19 votes against (from Enhedslisten, Socialistisk Folkeparti and Alternativet ), to go to war.

The dinner speech joke is that Denmark is a nice, small and harmonious country because we figured out that losing wars was a good way of cutting ourselves loose from the Swedes, Norwegians and Germans. This war, though, is one we have to win. (ES)