Little country, big effort

The Washington Post has an article by Carol Morello, the diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post covering the State Department, about the war against the Islamic State:

Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen (photo, left) said he expects overwhelming approval from his country’s Parliament to send warplanes and troops, including Special Forces, to Syria and Iraq to help fight the Islamic State.
Jensen, in Washington to meet with Secretary of State John F. Kerry (photo, right) and other officials, said in an interview that F-16 fighter jets and four hundred Danish troops would be deployed to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey by this summer. Their mission would be to train fighters in Iraq and Syria, including Kurdish forces. He declined to specify the size of the special forces’ deployment, but said they would be assigned to the region for a full year.
The United States has been pushing the nations that are part of an anti-Islamic State coalition to contribute more to the fight. In 2014, Denmark dispatched F-16 fighter planes to conduct bombing raids in Iraq, but pulled them out last year for maintenance. They will return this summer, in greater numbers, with the mandate to go into Syria as needed, Jensen said. “The last time, there were limits on the areas where they were allowed to act,” Jensen said. Using the Arab acronym for the Islamic State, he added: “What we learned is that Daesh doesn’t care about borders. They just moved the troops around. If we want to push them back, if we want to defeat Daesh, we need to fight them wherever they are.”
Denmark, a country the size of Maryland with a population smaller than the Washington metropolitan area, will be making one of the highest per-capita contributions to the military campaign in Syria. Jensen said support for stepping up the involvement is broad in Denmark, with only the most left-wing members of Parliament expected to oppose it when it comes up for a vote next month.
“We have seen what happens to a small country with aggressive neighbors,” Jensen said. “We live with Russia as our neighbor. We know that international solidarity is important. And we have also been faced with the terrible horror of terror. So we know that, if we don’t fight Daesh, we are at risk of having the terrorists come to us.” Jensen said Denmark also wants to help with clearing mines in Ramadi, a city in central Iraq, so more refugees feel it is safe to return.
Denmark has come under withering criticism as it has tightened its border controls and refu­gee policies. It has increased how long refugees must wait for family reunification, slashed benefits, and searched new refugees for assets that can be applied to offset the cost of housing them.
But Jensen said Denmark remains committed to caring for refugees, and took in more than twenty thousand last year. An additional seventy-five thousand refugees are expected to come as part of family reunification. “That’s a huge influx of foreigners in a very small country,” he said.
Jensen said he is optimistic about the outcome of a meeting next week between the European Union and Turkey, which has offered to take back all migrants who crossed into Europe from its soil. In exchange, Turkey is demanding more money to care for them, faster EU membership talks, and visa-free travel in Europe for its citizens. Under the Turkish proposal, Europe would also admit more Syrians currently stuck in Greece.
“I am concerned that if we do not strike a deal with Turkey, you will see more national borders coming up,” Jensen said. But he said Denmark will not turn its back on refugees entirely. “It’s very important that Denmark, as a country, continues to help refugees in the refu­gee camps in the European Union and those who come to Denmark,” he said. “And we will continue to do so.” Jensen also said Denmark favors renewing sanctions against Russia this summer if Moscow has not lived up to its commitments under an agreement in the Belarus city of Minsk, aimed at reducing hostilities in the Ukraine. Some European diplomats have expressed waning support for sanctions.
“Russia is not the friendly neighbor we dreamed of ten years ago,” Jensen said. “They are a rather aggressive neighbor, in Syria, in the Ukraine, in the Arctic. As long as the Russians are not fulfilling the Minsk agreement fully, including the return of troops, the drawback of the heavy arms and the right for the Ukraine to control its own borders, we will continue to support sanctions.”

Rico says we'll take all the help we can get...