"Dear Rufus Gifford, I'm not writing as a politician. Not as an analyst. I'm writing as a Danish Afghanistan and Iraq veteran. And yes this brings tears to my eyes. When the U.S. today calls Denmark a poor ally, it feels like a slap in the face to those of us who were actually there. After 9/11, Denmark did not hesitate. We didn't debate polls. We didn't calculate politics. We put on our gear."
"We patrolled together. We covered each other. We bled together. And we lost people. Danish soldiers never came back home because we took the alliance seriously not as words, but as a promise between soldiers. So when Denmark is called disloyal, it doesn't just hit a country. It hits those of us who wore the uniform. It hits the fallen. It hits the families still paying the price."
Company Sergeant Major Henrik Bager described a Danish saying about a cup that must be emptied to avoid stress and anger. Rising U.S. rhetoric claiming Denmark failed to secure Greenland and was a poor ally filled his cup with sadness and anger. Bager, a five-time deployer to serve alongside Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, emptied those feelings into an emotional Facebook letter to former U.S. Ambassador Rufus Gifford. The letter recounts Denmark's immediate post-9/11 response, soldiers who deployed without political debate, shared patrols and sacrifices alongside American forces, lost lives, and the expectation of honesty and respect rather than praise.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]