Danes: The Epic Sacrifice of Ragnar Lothbrok

It was ⁢sunny in southern ⁤Afghanistan‌ on ⁢June 1, ⁣2010, and⁣ the temperature ⁢quickly reached 104 degrees. ​Sophia Bruun was the gunner ‍on a‍ Piranha ‌combat vehicle, guarding two platoons ‍conducting ‍a patrol ‌near the town of Gereshk. They were looking for details from⁢ locals about the Taliban.

One of the Piranhas in Sophia’s battle group​ had ⁤hit an‌ IED frist‍ thing in the morning,blowing off a wheel,but no one was injured.At the outskirts of⁤ a village,they were ⁢fired on by the Taliban. They⁣ returned fire,and the situation calmed. The patrol continued.But seven⁣ minutes​ after noon,​ an IED ​went​ off under Sophia’s vehicle, flipping it. She was killed instantly,at the age of 22.

In the years after Sophia’s death, her⁣ mother, Lene Bruun, returned repeatedly to details of her service, studying letters from the Danish army that she​ stored in a metal trunk in⁣ her home west of Copenhagen. Over⁤ time,she allowed herself distance from her grief. “you can put it away for ‌a ⁣short time, ⁤sometimes longer, but then it⁣ comes back,”‌ Bruun, who is 72, told me over coffee at her ‌kitchen table. “And you don’t know what triggers it.”

But these days, Sophia’s mother knows exactly what triggers her grief: “when Trump says we’re not good enough.”‌ Bruun is a​ tiny woman, with soft white hair and fine lines grooved into her pale skin. But she became flushed when discussing the American ⁤president, who has been​ threatening to seize Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. “Keep your ‌fingers away,” she said with a ‌swatting motion, as if to thwart Trump’s land grab.

The Trump administration’s designs on Greenland ‍have forced European leaders to speak openly⁢ about ⁤the possible end​ of ⁢NATO. “If the United States attacks ⁣another NATO country, everything stops,” Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, warned‍ recently. A military strike​ by the alliance’s ‍most powerful member would make its promise of common defense obsolete-and risk the outbreak of World War III.⁤ It’s a bewildering possibility for the‌ Danes, who see ⁤the united States as their most critically important ally, the country that ushered them into the NATO pact ⁤and guaranteed their security ⁤for nearly 80 years.

Denmark is small, with ⁢a population ⁤of just 6 million.‍ But it has ⁣tried to uphold its end of the bargain. It lost more soldiers per capita than the United States did in Afghanistan. In ⁢all, there were 43 deaths, a sacrifice that Danes accepted as the cost‌ of ⁤their international obligations. Sophia was the​ first female soldier to fall in combat in Danish history, her⁤ death a‌ ripple effect⁢ of the September ‍11 attacks, the first time that ‌NATO’s mutual-defense clause was​ invoked. Triggering Article 5 obligated U.S. allies to assist, including by sending soldiers like Sophia ⁣to‌ fight. This ⁤time, if Article 5 is invoked, the United States might be‌ the aggressor.

Trump appears unbothered by the prospect⁤ that his move⁢ against⁣ Danish territory might obliterate the american-led ‌order. “If​ it affects NATO, it affects NATO,” he said recently. “But you know, they need us ​much more than we need them.” That might potentially ​be true in a strict sense; U.S. power eclipses Danish capabilities many times over. But when I traveled to Denmark this month,I found

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Bruun ⁣supported Denmark’s ⁢participation in⁣ the Afghan War. “As we are such a small country, we can only⁤ go with other countries,” ⁤she said. “That’s ​the only way we can survive.” Denmark expanded its contribution in 2006, when the Danish Parliament approved plans to ⁢deploy troops to​ a British⁤ provincial-reconstruction team and other allied efforts in Helmand province, a notorious Taliban stronghold in the country’s south. In all, Denmark sent nearly 20,000 personnel, according to estimates. Many of ⁤them helped carry⁤ out Britain’s so-called platoon-house strategy, ‌in which small groups of soldiers occupy fortified positions in strategic towns to project ‍authority and⁢ fend off the ⁤Taliban.

Denmark’s soldiers engaged in the ‍fiercest combat seen by its forces since the war against Prussia and Austria in 1864.The lesson, says Peter Boysen, a deputy commander of Danish soldiers in Afghanistan, was that the country could manage the casualties. ‍”We risked our lives by participating‌ in an operation ‌far from our ‌home,” Boysen, who is now chief‌ of the Danish army, told me. And because the fight was ​in support of a NATO ally that had come under attack, he said,⁢ it was worth it.

‘m getting up early tommorow, so now I ⁣go to bed.'”

She signed off,‌ “Love you.”