The Nordic Surge

Denmark on Friday decided to increase its military presence in Afghanistan by about a third, and to replace its army contingent in southern Iraq with a small air force staff and four helicopters.

In a 99-12 vote, lawmakers backed the government's decision to add some 200 troops in Afghanistan to Denmark's current force of 440 soldiers to join the reconstruction effort. Sixty-eight lawmakers were absent.

The bulk of the new troops in Afghanistan will be in charge of security around reconstruction efforts in the volatile Helmand province in the south. A group of 45 Danish soldiers will be assigned to a NATO facility at Kandahar airport.

The Danes have been great allies. They are fighting side by side with the Americans, British, Canadians, Dutch and Estonians in RC-S (with others like the Romanians and Poles in RC-E) while the rest of Europe let others die for them. This July, it is estimated that Denmark will have a population of 5,468,120. 200 to them is like 10,942 to the USA - as as a % of the population, their deployable forces are much smaller. Bravo Zulu and thanks.