Committing War Crimes to Please U.S. Politicians: The Case of Denmark
By Ron Ridenour - January 3, 2021
Covert Action Magazine
Royal Danish army in Afghanistan. [Source: reddit.com]
The Sad Story of How a Once Progressive Nation Became an Outpost of the
American Empire
We perceive it as natural that once again we are on the way to war, part of
our every day, explained Vibeke Schou Tjalve, senior researcher at the
Danish Institute for International Studies.
People believe that if the USA says that it is wise, so it is wise for us
to be with them
We have broken our hymen.
Since the 1991 invasion of Iraq, Denmark has been fighting U.S. wars. It has
sent troops into the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
Danish soldiers conduct a patrol in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on
October 8, 2005. [Source: rt.com]
Tjalve explained that, since at least October 2, 2014, practically every
military researcher at universities and military think tanks agree that
Denmark is at war to please America.[1]
The above date was significant because Denmark announced then that it had
sent four F-16 war jets and 300 mercenaries to the Baltic States and Poland
in response to the U.S.-led coup against Ukraines democratically elected
government. Sanctions against Russia followed. [2]
I had recently committed civil disobedience against Danish mercenaries who
had returned from killing Afghans. The state created Flag Day, in 2009, to
honor its modern Vikings fighting abroad. On that day, September 5, 2013, a
parade-ceremony took place at the Queens Copenhagen castle (Rosenborg). As
a colonel opened the ceremony, I stepped from the civilian onlookers onto
the Queens grass, unfolded my Stop the War banner and shouted at the
mercenaries, Stop the Killing.
The author is subdued with an iron grip by a patriotic civilian
defending Denmarks participation in Americas wars on Flag Day. [Source:
bt.dk]
A patriotic civilian leapt up and placed me in an iron grip. He and two
soldiers dragged me off the holy grass to a police/military area where a
leading police officer asked my birthplace and then instructed me: You can
return to America and demonstrate there, but not here.
I refused to comply and landed in jail. The duty officer informed me, There
is democracy in Denmark, but you cannot disturb our heroes ceremony. You
can go to Syria and see what happens when you demonstrate.
Having prevented me from more provocation by demonstrating for peace
against the first woman prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, I sat in a
tiny cell as this Social Democrat gleefully told her Danish war adherents,
standing by the government-parliament Christiansborg castle, Denmark is one
of those countries that contributes most. We are at par with the Americans,
and therewith we believe Denmark is a strong, active and most solidarity
NATO nation.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, center, at NATO summit in Wales in 2014 with David
Cameron, right, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General and former
Danish Secretary General, who had led Denmark into Iraq.[Source: zimbio.com]
New Cold War against Russia
Denmark is not the only vassal state adhering to the U.S. Military Empire.
All 27 members of the European Union (EU) and all thirty NATO members,
follow suit.
Russia is now under sanctions by the EU (as are China, Iran, Venezuela and
other rogue states), because 97% of Crimeans (1,274,096) voted to join
Russia, while 2.5% (32,000) voted to remain with the neo-fascist-led coup
government of Ukraine. Eighty-three percent of those eligible voted. A year
later, the very capitalist Forbes magazine wrote:
The U.S. and European Union may want to save Crimeans from themselves, but
the Crimeans are happy right where they are. One year after the annexation
of the Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea, poll after poll shows that the
locals therebe they Ukrainians, ethnic Russians or Tatarsare mostly all in
agreement: life with Russia is better than life with Ukraine.
Crimeans celebrate one-year anniversary of rejoining Russia. [Source:
forbes.com]
The EU was intent on punishing Russia for asserting its rights.
Member-states rallied behind the sanctions despite their traditional worship
of free market trading.
Economists from Kiel and Hong Kong calculated in 2019 that $4 billion in
trade each month would be lost due to anti-Russian sanctions. Of these
export losses, $1.8 billion, or 45%, are borne by authorizing countries, 55%
by Russia.
The EU originally introduced sanctions on July 31, 2014, for one year in
response to Russias actions of destabilizing the situation in Ukraine,
and extends the sanctions periodically.
A double standard is apparent in the fact that Russia is singled out when
other countries that engage in far worse human rights violations are not
sanctioned. Examples include Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Colombia, and Israel
whose right-wing government routinely seizes Palestinian land and homes.
The United States itself has waged wars of aggression on numerous countries,
backed a coup in Bolivia, encircled Chinas waters, and established an
unprecedented carceral state.
Denmark allows its banks to whitewash monies that come from drug and arms
smuggling, and refuses to plug loopholes in taxes so that the very rich can
claim refunds from taxes they have not paid. These matters have been news
for years. Yet when a corporation sells jet fuel to Russia, which it uses to
destroy IS terrorist enclaves in Syria, Denmark calls this criminal.
172,000 tons of jet fuel! That is what Dan-Bunkering in Denmark sold to
Russia in the decisive years of 2015-17. According to Mikkel Storm Jensen, a
military analyst for the Defense Academy, Without Russian flying would
Assad not have won the civil war?
That would mean the preferred victors would have been the terrorists of IS,
al-Qaeda and other milder U.S.-armed opposition groups. Another Libya.
In November 2020, Denmarks government charged the company with violating EU
sanction rules and is seeking not only a fine, which is the most the
government ever seeks for corporate crimes, but also imprisonment of those
responsible.
Dan-Bunkering CEO Keld Demant faces potential jail time for selling jet fuel
to Russia which was used in Syria. He says that the company had no knowledge
that the jet fuel might end up in Syria. [Source: shippingwatch.com]
DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) wrote that it was U.S. documentation
and sources (read: NSA/CIA) that showed its government in Denmark this
criminal behavior on the part of Dan-Bunkering. The company purportedly
earned about $3 billion from free market trading.
Authoritarian Russia was eliminating real terrorists who cut off heads for
any sinful behavior or simply for being born in the wrong family. The
democratic CIA and Pentagon back different terrorist groups fighting
against the Syrian government army while also fighting one another.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, January 7, 2020. [Source:
svoboda.org]
The Los Angeles Times reported on March 27, 2016, that
Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun
to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and
the Turkish border, highlighting how little control U.S. intelligence
officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and
trained in the bitter five-year-old civil war.
In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of
Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea, about 20 miles north of
Aleppo, by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from
Kurdish-controlled areas to the east. A fighter with the Suqour Al-Jabal
brigade, a group with links to the CIA, said intelligence officers of the
U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State know their group has clashed with
the Pentagon-trained militias.
The CIA operates inside Turkey where it directs aid to rebel groups in
Syria, providing them with TOW antitank missiles from Saudi Arabian weapons
stockpiles.
Fursan al Haq sometimes is with al-Qaedas group in Syria, Al-Nusra.
Russia backs governments in Syria, Iran, Crimea, Venezuela, Bolivia, and
Cuba, which the U.S. and its vassal states consider illegitimate and
criminal. On top of sanctions, more war weaponry is brought to Russias
borders, and war exercises take place in anticipation of a Russian
attack.[3]
In 2018, NATO troops and 500 war vehicles crossed into Denmark from Germany
on their way to Norway to conduct war maneuvers against a Russian invasion.
Two hundred and fifty war aircraft, 65 warships and 50,000 troops
participated from 29 NATO nations plus non-member partners Sweden and
Finland.
Danish troops participate in a parade with Americans on Estonias
independence day, February 24, 2020. [Source: forsvaret.dk]
Social Democrats Embrace the New Cold War with Relish
In the autumn of 2019, the new Social Democrat government leaders wet their
skirts scrambling to convince the most narcissistic president in U.S.
history (only 6% of Danes think well of Donald Trump, according to polls)
that they are his most loyal of all lackeys. Great Britain move over. Mette
Frederiksen heads the government.
She and her war minister, Trine Bramsen, felt the need to make up for not
being able to sell its logistically strategic colony, Greenland, to Donald
Trumps government, something he felt was a condition for his scheduled
September 2019 visit.
As such, Frederiksen pledged closer U.S. and Danish cooperation in efforts
to control the Arctic, whose melting ice has increased competition for oil
and minerals with Russia.
Mette Frederiksen poses with Danish troops. [Source: nord.news]
Frederiksen also made further offerings to assist the United States Military
Empire, which included:
September 2, the same day that Trump would have walked beside PM
Frederiksen, she instructed her war minister, Trine Bramsen, to send four
F-16s to Lithuania just in case Russia decided to invade there first.
Danish officers prepare for flyovers in Lithuania as part of the new cold
war. [Source: twitter.com]
The same day, Frederiksen-Bramsen announced they were buying top-notch sonar
so it could help search for Putin-run submarines.
Offsetting Trumps criticism that Denmark as a wealthy country should pay
more for its military, Frederiksen-Bramsen pledged millions for NATO.
Defense Minister Trine Bramsen meets with Danish soldiers fresh from Iraq.
[Source: thelocal.dk]
Bramsen assured us that her elite corps (comparable to Navy Seals and
Frogmen) will be used to protect us against Russia. She did not tell us what
the threat was but emphasized that the elite corps would be effective when
there is need for it.
September 6, the PM, Secretary of State and War Minister stood together as
they announced sending 500 more soldiers to various vulnerable parts of the
globe. They will sail Denmarks largest vessel, a frigate, to patrol the
waters close to Russia and Iran alongside U.S. aircraft carriers. (A Danish
frigate with helicopters and 155 sailors sailed in a France-led surveillance
mission in Hormuz Strait beginning in December 2019, increasing tensions.)
September 27, the largest military exercise on Danish soil in 15 years
engaged in maneuvers against a hypothetical Russian invading force.
Operation Brave Lion confronted the invisible Brown Bears with two thousand
men and women (women now comprise 20% of the military).
2,000 Danish soldiers play war as Russia is depicted as a looming threat.
[Source: dr.dk]
Kristian Soeby Kristensen, senior researcher at the Institute for Military
Studies, Copenhagen University, told DR, Russia constitutes a potential
military threat to Europe
so it is decisive that European countries also
equip themselves and pose with more powerful forces.
The threat from this huge country is frightening for those who refuse to
see how ridiculous it is to claim that 145 million Russians will take on 900
million people in 30 NATO countries.
Denmark and the EU generally follow the U.S.s lead in denying that the
Soviet Union/Russia played an important role in winning WWII.
On Victory Day, May 4, 75 years after Germany surrendered in Denmark, Danish
politicians gave no credit to the fact that the Soviet Union played a
central role in liberating Europe from the Nazis. Twenty-seven million
Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed (13% of its people), compared to
450,000 in the UK (1%), and 420,000 Americans (0.32%).
Denmark has also come up with reasons to sanction Russias ally, China.
Denmarks largest telecommunications company (TDC) worked with Huawei and
was satisfied. No one could find any spying capabilities with Huawei
products. Trump, however, just as all U.S. presidents tied with Wall Street,
must have enemies. They serve for weapon-industry profiteering and as
diversions from internal problems. With sanctions against Huawei, TDC
switched to Ericsson, a Swedish company.
The Peoples Indifference
If any Danes read this piece, most will probably think that their system is
democratic, just like America is the greatest democracy.
Russia and China are accused of being anti-democratic, authoritarian, even
totalitarian states. Yet Anders Wivel and Rasmus Mariagers 2019 book,
Krigsudredningen (The War Investigation), shows how Denmarks military
engagement [is] driven by Danish politicians decision-making will to
accommodate American desire for military contribution.
The decision about going to war is not what one fights for, but with whom
we fight. What is lacking is any systematic discussion of goals, means,
expected affect, resources, risk, time plan
alternatives and consequence.
Elections are not determined by foreign policy
Denmarks alliances and
world goals are decided by politicians, wrote Informations editor about
the book. By implication, the people have no say.
The people do though acquiesce to the misallocation of national resources in
their indifference (ligeglad in Danish). This can be explained by the fact
that the vast majority of Danes are well fed, benefit from low-cost consumer
goods produced in the Global South, and feel secure that no one will attack
them when they have the U.S. at their back.
Most Danes realize that Denmark further profited from its colonizing and do
not, therefore, want to confront that past, which is clearly seen on many
monuments/statues/street names around the country, just like in England,
France and elsewhere.
Greenland Not For Sale, or What?
U.S. Homeland Security official Miles Taylor was with Donald Trump in Puerto
Rico, in August 2018. After he resigned, Taylor recounted: Not only did he
want to purchase Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could
sell Puerto Rico
Could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland because, in his
words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor?
Trump wanted to swap Puerto Rico for Greenland. [Source: taskandpurpose.com]
It was not necessary to ask Puerto Ricans or Greenlanders. He raised the
matter with Denmarks new PM Mette Frederiksen. But Denmarks prime
ministers do not have the authority to make such a deal.
When Frederiksen declined, she made the error of telling Danish media that
the notion was absurd. This term injured Trumps vanity so he cancelled
his planned trip to Denmark on September 2, 2019. About 1,000 of us gathered
to demonstrate against him and Denmarks cozy relationship with Trump
anyway.
But Donald Trump does not give up easily, as the 2020 election clearly
shows. He tried buying good will so that Greenlanders will allow the
United States to use their land for more war machinery. In April 2020, Trump
sent $12 million to enhance Greenlands growth.
Trumps ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, wrote, Unlike Russia and the
PRC [Peoples Republic of China], Americas vision for the Arctic area is
based on transparency, cooperation and democratic values.
Carla Sands [Source: altinget.dk]
Sands also wrote that this money would screen Greenlanders from malicious
influence and extortion by Russia and China.
She encouraged Denmark to spend more to protect Greenland, i.e., buy more
F-35s. Twenty-seven are already contracted, which will increase its war
aircraft fleet by 40% along with General Dynamics F-16s.
The Russian ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir V. Barbin, replied that the U.S.
rejects dialogue and cooperation, preferring confrontation politics
oriented to achieve domination.
Mette Frederiksen smiled and said the $12 million was a wonderful gift.
Unlimited consumerism is causing the melting of all the Arctics glaciers
within a few years. The territories and countries around it (Greenland,
Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, China, Russia) should see the need to cooperate
to help save its glaciers and not steal the oil and mineral wealth beneath
them.
At least one Danish politician complained about the Danish governments
acquiescence to Americas growing influence in Greenland.
Member-of-Parliament for SF (Peoples Socialists) Karsten Hoenge, observed
that, since Trump has been unable to buy Greenland, he instead seeks to
massage Greenlands public so that it will become natural at some point to
choose it as its cooperation partner.
Greenlanders remember what most others do not about how dangerous flying
about with nuclear weapons can be. On January 21, 1968, a B-52 carrying four
nuclear bombs caught on fire and crashed into ice nearby Thule Air Force
Base.
Denmark has had a no-nuclear policy since 1957. Not only does Denmark not
have its own nuclear weapons, it does not allow any such weaponry on its
territory.
The U.S. had moved Greenlanders from Thule village during WWII to build the
base. After the war, and possessing nuclear weaponry, the enemy was again
the Soviet Union. Since then, the U.S. flies and sails with nuclear missiles
regardless of any nations laws. Danish politicians cover up the fact that
the U.S. has nuclear weaponry on its territory.
Following the crash, teams of Danes and Americans conducted as much clean-up
of nuclear waste and plutonium as they said they could. The whole matter was
hushed up, but a report revealed that only 90% of dangerous material was
recovered; 10% was sunken below the seabed at North Star Bay, contaminating
plants and fish.
Scientists get a Geiger counter ready for inspection at site where a B-52
bomber crashed with four H-bombs near Thule Air Force Base in January 1968.
[Source: airforcetimes.com]
Of the 1,500 Danish workers, 450 died from radiation cancer. In 1995, Danish
survivors of the clean-up (Operation Chrome Dome) sued for compensation.
Survivors received the grand total of $6,000 each for their pain. Neither
the American workers nor native Greenlanders in the area received anything.
The Association of Former Thule Workers called it a cover-up.
Cover-up is what the Danish governments Defense Department does by
illegally spying on its residents and European neighbors, a Danish weapons
firm, Terma, even the Ministry of Finance, all to please NSA and Lockheed
Martin.
Mette Swinging with Trump
Following the tense situation about who should control Greenland, Mette
Frederiksen met with Donald Trump in London during the December 2019 NATO
meeting.
She told the media, I have a good and positive impression of the
president. We can count on one another and we can trust one another. We
swing well.
Mette Frederiksen meets with Donald Trump. [Source: commons.wikimedia.org]
To prove how well she swings with her big partner, Frederiksen increased
Denmarks military support over what she had offered just two months before.
This support included:
More military focus and money in Greenlands Arctic area for national
security.
Double Denmarks war aircraft for NATO disposal from four to eight in honor
of its 70th birthday.
Key features of Denmarks military might for 5.7 million inhabitants
include:
a $3 billion Defense budget, 3% of 2019 Financial Budget. 20% increase in
military spending over a six-year period.
Mercenaries in Afghanistan (160) plus police; $50 million for what is
admittedly Afghanistans corrupt police corps; aircraft and war vehicles
come and go.
Mercenaries in Iraq (150). Denmark is sending another 50 as it takes charge
of the remaining NATO countries 500 advisers. This is Denmarks third
mission in Iraq. Its first 2003-7 was aimed at crushing Saddam Husseins
government and resistance forces. Denmark also has 14 operators at a United
Arab Emirates airbase as part of its mission in Iraq.
Danish troops patrol town of Al-Qarma, 15 km north of Basra in 2005.
[Source: arabnews.com]
Mercenaries in the Baltic (200-300). The Danes are there officially to keep
Putins troops away. The three Baltic countries are in NATO and the EU,
making it ludicrous to believe the Russians would invade.
Mercenaries in Bosnia (400) and Kosovo (three dozen).
Danish Foreign Policy History
Denmark accepted Nazi Germanys occupation immediately as its tanks rolled
in, April 9, 1940. Its government, usually led by Social Democrats, turned
over Danish resistance fighters to the Nazis. It allowed fascist Danes to
fight with German Nazis.
The last two years of the war, Danish underground resistance became quite
effective and that convinced the allies to accept Denmark as an ally after
the war.
When British troops marched into Denmark on liberation day May 5, 1945,
Danish politicians eagerly embraced them, and decided to follow the lead of
the United States. The economy was rebuilt with Marshall Plan funding. Much
of that was repaid in Danish currency once the economy grew.
Denmark had had no conflicts with the Soviet Union after it left the Danish
island of Bornholm a few months after ousting Nazi occupiers at the end of
the war. Nevertheless, Denmark swore alliance to the UK-USA Cold War started
by Winston Churchill and Harry Truman.
Denmark was one of the first dozen nations to form NATO in 1949 and
established a clandestine Gladio army in case of a Communist invasion.
However, Denmark did not participate in U.S. wars and coups, and most Danes
were adamantly against the war in Southeast Asia. Many Danish youth and
left-wing parties were peace activists.
Social Democrat PM Anker Joergensen led the Danish government most of the
time between 1972 and 1982. Having been a union activist and warehouse
worker, he argued that Denmark should be neutral in the Cold War and that
NATO warships should be barred from carrying nuclear arms in Danish waters.
Joergensen also opposed the Vietnam War. When Vietnam retook its land from
the invaders, PM Joergensen expressed support for its liberation, adding
that the U.S.s foreign policy has a false ideological foundation.
Anker Joergensen [Source: wikipedia.org]
Editors of two of the three major newspapers (Jyllands Posten and Berlingske
Tidende) were outraged. They wrote that he is rude to the United States and
does not speak for Denmark. That was the opinion of the traditional
bourgeois parties.
Peace organizations and left-wing parties, including Social Democrats at
that time, opposed NATOs fascination with escalating the Cold War with more
nuclear missiles. A majority of parliament adopted a footnote policy that
prohibited Denmark supporting Pershing and Cruise middle-range missiles not
only on its territory but throughout Europe.
As the U.S. installed their new deadly ware, millions of Europeans resisted,
especially in Germany. In September 1981, tens of thousands demonstrated in
Berlin against visiting U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig. They were
indignant that Haig had said during his confirmation hearings earlier in
1981, There are more important things than peace, things which we Americans
must be willing to fight for.
Many Europeans did not believe that the United States Military Empire had
the right to force them to fight for their wars rather than for peace.
Thousands of demonstrations occurred during the 1980s. During a week of
actions in April 1983, a key peace leader and theologian, Helmut Gollwitzer,
accused Chancellor Helmut Kohl of selling out West Germany to the United
States President.
Helmut Gollwitzer [Source: deutschlandfunk.de]
In October 1983, I was with Danes demonstrating with two million Germans and
other Europeans in several German cities where the U.S. had placed nuclear
missiles. During ten days in October, hundreds of thousands more protested
in London, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna, and Rome.
In Bonn, half-a-million people heard Social Democrat Party Chairman, former
Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt speak. Although he did
not mention Ronald Reagan by name, he asked rhetorically why Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachevs offer to destroy some intermediate nuclear missiles
(SS20) to begin de-escalation was not reciprocated.
In Stockholm, tens of thousands linked arms in front of the U.S., Soviet,
British and French embassies. Prime Minister Olof Palme participated.
The largest hand-linking demonstration, more than 100 kilometers long,
stretched from Ulm to Stuttgart where I stood amongst 200,000 people.
Organizers had hoped for half that number, which would have connected in one
line the two cities and a U.S. military base where Pershing missiles were to
be deployed. We were so many that we had to make a snaking formation. At
precisely noon, all traffic stopped. Not a word was spoken. Our hands were
literally electrified in a brotherly sensation as we melted into one spirit.
The remarkable lack of violent disturbance was traced by police authorities
to superb cooperation with leaders of the peace movement, William Drozdiak
wrote.
One of many actions against more missiles in Europe. Here are NATO soldiers
who say no.[Source: dw.com]
Missiles meant to protect the West against the East also kill themselves.
On January 12, 1985, a solid-fuel motor of an unarmed Pershing II missile
located at Waldheide base caught fire, killing three U.S. soldiers and
injuring seven others.
Our persistent actions connecting hands and hearts across the continents of
North America and Europe, West and East, laid the foundation for the largest
international peace conference since February 1972 when 1,200 delegates from
84 nations met at Versailles to plan actions against the U.S. war in
Southeast Asia. In October 1986, twice that many delegates2,200 from 2,468
organizations in 136 countriesmet in Copenhagen at the World Peace
Congress.
As a peace activist-journalist, I reported in print and radio from
Stuttgart, from the Versailles conference, and from Copenhagens conference
as co-chair of the journalist workshop. We were 254 journalists covering
from inside. We pledged to uphold the Helsinki Accords of August 1975
regarding the use of information in the context of strengthening peace and
understanding among peoples; to cooperate irrespective of their economic and
social conditions.
The conferees main goal was to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons
and to dismantle those that existed. UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de
Cuéllar, India PM Rajiv Gandhi, and U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy sent
greetings.
Copenhagen mayor Egon Weidekamp, a Social Democrat, opened the conference,
stating. We can be of many convictions, but the desire for peace unites
us.
Egon Weidekamp [Source: wikipedia.org]
Despite our numbers, our breadth and peaceful vision, the entire Danish
media, with the exception of the then Communist Party media, vilified us,
even the progressive daily Information, which had been an underground
resistance newspaper during Nazi occupation. Why?
The World Peace Council, the Soviet Unions peace organization, was present,
and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had declared the goal of eliminating all
nuclear weapons. Unlike U.S. leaders, Gorbachev did not think economic and
political systems led by elites were more important than peace. So, in the
minds of the owners and editors of mass media, if Russians wanted peace
there must be something fishy about it.
Despite the mass medias reluctance to support world peace efforts, our
resistance coupled with de-escalation efforts by Gorbachev, led to the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
In January 1986, Gorbachev had publicly proposed a three-stage program for
abolishing all nuclear weapons. He convinced Reagan to meet in Reykjavik to
discuss de-escalating as we met in Copenhagen.
Reagan refused to go as far as Gorbachev but within months Gorbachevs
actions de-escalating nuclear weaponry could not be dismissed. The Soviet
Union reduced its long-range nuclear missiles by half. On December 8, 1987,
the INF treaty was signed; passed by the U.S. Senate on May 27, 1988; and
ratified by both world leaders on June 1.
The New York Times, December 9, 1987. [Source: rarenewspapers.com]
The INF Treaty banned all of the two nations land-based ballistic missiles,
cruise missiles, and missile launchers with ranges of 5001,000 kilometers,
and 1,0005,500 km. By May 1991, the nations had eliminated 2,692 missiles,
followed by 10 years of on-site verification inspections.
President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the INF treaty in
October 2018.
Despite the headway decreasing atomic weaponry, Denmarks right-wing
parties, and a majority of voters, would not risk confronting the U.S.s
laissez-faire attitude about where its atomic weapons should be.
U.S. warships docking in Denmark were known to contain nuclear missiles.
When a U.S. nuclear missile-carrying war vessel docked in Copenhagen harbor,
in the spring of 1988, SD leader Sven Auken demanded that Conservative Party
PM Poul Schlüter deliver a letter to the captain explaining Denmarks policy
prohibiting the presence of any nuclear weapons on/over Danish territory.
President Reagan made it clear that no such letter would be accepted. For
the only time in Danish history, a government called for an early election
based upon foreign policy. The right wing had won the regular election nine
months before and, on May 10, 1988, a majority of voters returned the
right-wing government to power.
This led to replacing the footnote foreign policy with an active one.
Denmarks subservience to U.S./NATO had a higher priority than the threat of
nuclear war.
Henceforth and to this day, either all or nearly all of Denmarks political
parties, including Social Democrats under bourgeois leadership, are at war
wherever the U.S. dictates. The vast majority of the population have
accepted domination by the United States.
The first war Denmark participated in was Bush Is invasion of Iraq in 1991.
Denmarks War Reality: The Toll
Thirty thousand troops and mercenaries sent out 67,371 times to war between
1990 and 2017, and running, as an aggressor in half-a-dozen countries,
either as part of NATO or part of the coalition of the willing. Danish
troops have also been in two dozen countries as part of UN peacekeeping
forces.
Modern Danish Viking warriors got their feet wet during the Gulf War (August
1990-February 1991) by invading Iraq over a dispute with Kuwait arising from
oil pricing and production conflicts.
On August 2, 1990, Denmark sent its Olfert Fischer corvette to blockade Iraq
and relieve U.S. and UK warships.
Olfert Fischer Corvette [Source: wikipedia.org]
The worlds largest ship owner, A.P. Moeller-Maersk (APMM), was disappointed
that the Danish government had offered so little to help the U.S.-led war
that he demanded and received direct contact with the U.S. military.
A.P. Moeller with his son Mærsk Mc-Kinney Moeller (left) in Denmark, 1962.
Moeller founded the A.P. Moeller -Maersk Group in 1904. [Source:
wikipedia.org]
APMM sent dozens of ships to transport a half-million U.S. troops and
armaments free of charge. This bought him future war contracts worth
billions of dollars.
One of Maersks shipping lines, Maersk Line Limited, is based in Norfolk,
Virginia. His 56 ships there fly the U.S. stars and stripes. Twenty-two of
them are used directly by the U.S. for military operations.
When Lockheed Martin received a contract for building 1,763 F-35 super jets
following the September 11, 2001, attacks, A.P. Moeller-Maersk was right
there.
The company offered his ships and expertise, and this brought the Danish
government into the picture. APMM ships were contracted to sail parts from
around the world to Lockheed Martins factory in Fort Worth, Texas.
During the 1990s, Denmark had assisted in breaking up Yugoslavia, which
succeeded by dividing the socialist-led state into five separate capitalist
states in the 1990s.
On November 8, 1992, Denmark sent 170 soldiers and observers to Bosnia.
Denmark was under UN peace-keeping missions and later under NATO fighting
missions until March 1995.
In October 1998, the first 875 of many thousands of Danish mercenaries were
sent to fight beside the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Nine F-16s
accompanied them. The KLA was a drug-smuggling band and was on a U.S. and
European terrorist list in 1998. When the KLA attacked socialist-led Serbian
forces, it became an ally. Denmark still occupies Bosnia and Kosovo. Hashim
Thaçi resigned the presidency on November 5, 2020, after being indicted in
June 2020 on ten counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Danish soldier guards Camp Marechal De Lattre de Tassigny at Novo Selo in
Kosovo. [Source: fmn.dk]
In December 2001, Denmark joined the U.S. and NATO in its invasion of
Afghanistan.
It started with over 100 Danish mercenaries to kill Afghanis, because the
government would not deliver what the U.S. said were al-Qaeda forces hiding
in Afghanistan.
Danish soldiers surveying an Afghan poppy field, source of income for the
CIA and local growers. [Source: berlingske.bmcdn.dk]
The U.S. refused to offer the Taliban government, which it had helped to
gain power, any proof that those Saudi al-Qaeda forces were responsible for
the terrorist actions on September 11th.
Denmark has flown more than 1,000 F-16 missions, used helicopters, transport
aircraft, tanks, and thousands of machine guns. It has spent more money
there than any other invader other than the U.S.three billion dollars
between 2002-2015, and still counting.
Danish pilot refueling his F-16. [Source: reddit.com]
Queen Margrethe II is not supposed to speak politically, as the royal
family has been so limited by the current constitution. In 2001, however,
during her annual end of the year speech, she could not resist, commenting
on the need for war against Afghanistan:
Nor do we allow ourselves to be intimidated into being just ourselves. We
continue participating in activities and commitments to the international
community [read: the United States]. This was recently emphasized when
Denmark decided shortly before Christmas to make Danish military forces
available for international operations [read: US aggressive war] in
Afghanistan. We are noticed, and we are heard. One counts on us and one can
count on us.
Queen Margrethe II gives moral boost to a Danish artillery regiment.
[Source: pinterest.com]
On March 21, 2003, Denmark became the only government to actually declare
war on Iraq. PM Anders Fogh Rasmussens public posture was that Iraq
possessed weapons of massive destruction (WMD), as if that were an
international crime warranting regime change.
No one seems to ask why Denmark does not invade other countries possessing
WMD. The truth, of course, was Iraq did not have WMD. Rasmussens own
Defense Intelligence Service knew that and so informed him. Whistleblower
Major Frank Grevil was sent to prison; Rasmussen became NATOs
Secretary-General.
Denmark first sent a submarine and a warship, and then contracted the U.S.
mercenary private firm Blackwater to protect 400 Danish soldiers initially
dispatched. Later, it sent seven F-16s.
Peace activism has been tepid for most of the years since 9/11 and the
beginning of the war on terror.
A notable exception occurred on February 15-16, 2003, when millions rallied
in 600 cities in 60 countries, the largest protest in human history.
Demonstrators in Copenhagen against war in Iraq. [Source: wikipedia.org]
The purpose was to prevent the myopic Bush regime from invading Iraq
following the takeover of Afghanistan.
I was among some 40,000 people in Copenhagen rallying before the seat of
power. We were a total of 50,000 in five major Danish cities, the largest
day of demonstrations since the Vietnam War. Some of the largest actions
took place in Europe. Three million in Rome was the largest in history, so
listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
According to BBC News between six and eleven million people took part in
protests. Other estimates range from eight million to thirty million.
George Bush turned a deaf ear. He only cared about oil for the U.S. and
war-industry profits.
On March 18, 2011, the Danish parliament voted unanimously to go to war
against Libya. They sent six F-16s and a transport aircraft to stop Libyas
Muammar Gaddafi from crushing civilian opposition armed in Benghazi,
something that groups associated with al-Qaeda claimed would soon happen.
Danish newspaper announces war on Qaddafi and showcases Danish F-16s.
[Source: 123rf.com]
Among the parties voting for the invasion was the Red/Green
partyEnhedslisten which was formed right after the fall of the Soviet Union
by the pro-Moscow Communist Party, Trotsykist communists, and Left
Socialists. By 2008, it had become a social democratic party backing the
official Social Democrats and ceased anti-war activities.
A Red-Green Alliance demonstration in 2012. [Source: jacobinmag.com]
Denmark dropped one thousand bombs. The brave pilots, as the media called
them, had no risk as Libyas air force was crushed. Not one Danish invader
was killed but hundreds of Libyan civilians were.
Destruction wrought by bombs in Libya. [Source: hrw.org]
Denmark spent more than $100 million helping destroy schools, hospitals,
homes, and soldiers protecting their sovereign nation. Western
humanitarian forces watched as its rebel opposition captured President
Gaddafi and tortured him to a painful death.
WE CAME, WE SAW, HE DIED chortled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on
CBS news.
Graph breaks down what different NATO countries did to facilitate the
destruction of Libya. [Source: static.guim.co.uk]
In April 2014, Danish ships transported 1,300 tons of chemical weaponry from
Syrias government to the U.S., the country with the most chemical and
biological weaponry. Denmark also sent F-16s on a few missions inside Syria
against all laws of sovereignty.
Danish soldiers fighting in Syria. [Source: worldbulletin.net]
In January 2017, Denmark sent 60 Special Forces to Syria. Jets and special
troops crossed back and forth between Syria and Iraq. Denmark has focused on
donating tax money to opposition humanitarian groups, such as White
Helmets embedded in IS-held territory, and friendly militia fighters
against the government.
The same month that Denmark began aiding terrorism in Syria, it flew four
F-16s to aid Estonia from being invaded by Russia. This intrepid action was
linked to support the neo-fascist Ukrainian government. Denmark continues
its peace-keeping mission in the Baltics.
Danish troops march in Estonia. [Source: sputniknews.com]
The Tally 1990-2017 (and running) war-making results: Danes killed, 64;
wounded, approximately 300; 47 suicides in 300 attempts 1992-2013 (and
running); no figures are known or kept of how many human beings Denmark has
murdered!
