Denmark lost 52 soldiers fighting alongside the US. Now it feels threatened by Trump

All his adult life, Colonel Surin Kenodsen ascended forward when he called his country. And when her allies did.

He fought alongside the American forces, especially in Afghanistan, and for some time the largest officer in Denmark was there. 58 missile attacks were envied during his duty.

“I got a bronze stars medal by the United States and gave me the stars and lines. They were hanging on my home in our house since then I proudly offered them to everyone.”

Then something changed.

“After the JD Vance statement about Greenland, the president’s lack of respect for the internationally recognized borders, I took those stars and lines down and the medal was placed,” said Surin.

This week before Congress, the US President doubled his desire to seize the largest island in the world: Greenland, an independent region of the Kingdom of Denmark.

“My first feeling was that it was painful, and the second is that I am insulting,” Colonel Kenodsen is wearing.

I met him in the first weeks of his retirement outside the Royal Residence in the eighteenth century in the eighteenth century, Amalburg Palace in the heart of Copenhagen.

Suddenly, Payb hits and walked the soldiers.

The change of the goalkeeper today comes at a time when the Trump administration has not only modified, but rather has led to most of the assumptions about European security, which fasted for 80 years.

“It comes to values ​​and when these values ​​are destroyed because of what we thought was an ally, it becomes very difficult to watch it.” Surin says with his American wife, Gina, next to him.

“Denmark joined freely and without a question to those efforts that my husband served,” she says.

“Therefore, it is a shock to hear threats from a country that I love also and I feel that the coalition is being refuted. This seems personally, not like an abstract foreign policy tactic.”

Surin did not give up all the hope though.

“From my hope and prayer to be able to put it one day [the flag] Again on the wall, “trust.

There is no sign of his prayers that will be answered soon.

Greenland, an independent area of ​​the Kingdom of Denmark, goes to opinion polls next week where all major parties support independence at some point in the future.

The acquisition of Donald Trump – who is likely to force – is not on the ballot paper.

Not far from the royal palace leads the memorial of Denmark for its missing soldiers in the last battle.

The sculpted on the walls covered with stone are the names of those who were killed alongside their Western allies.

The section that honors the fall in the US -led invasion of Afghanistan is particularly large.

Denmark has lost 44 soldiers in Afghanistan, which was less than six million of its population, more than any other ally of the United States. In Iraq, eight Danish soldiers died.

That is why the president’s words are very stinging.

One man is in a very good position to consider Trump’s aspirations for Greenland in fact is Anders Vogue Rasmussen.

“President Trump’s announcement of the intention may have taken Greenland by force to President Putin’s speech when it comes to Ukraine,” he told BBC.

The former and former Prime Minister of Denmark argues in the NATO coalition that this is the Denmark moment, and the rest of Europe must go up to better protect itself if the United States is not ready.

“Since my childhood, I admired the United States and its role as a policeman in the world. I think we need a policeman to ensure international law and order, but if the United States does not want to implement this role, Europe should be able to defend itself, to stand on its feet.”

Vog Rasmussen does not think that the policeman is about to transfer the criminal.

“I would like to confirm that I do not think at the end of the day that the Americans will take Greenland by force.”

President Trump spoke for the first time about a acquisition in Greenland in his first term before returning to the subject at the beginning of this year.

But now, after the supposed allies in the curtains with its latest movements on Ukraine, definitions, as well as the Middle East, are trying to urgently evaluate the real threat.

For many younger Danish, control over Greenland is wrong – colonial waste.

This does not mean that they want to deliver it directly over the United States instead.

“We have contacts with Greenland,” says Molly, Molly music student. “Denmark and Greenland are completely separate, I would like to say but still have friends from there, so this affects me very personally.”

“I find it really scary,” says Lucas, 18 -year -old.

“Everything he sees, follows. The thing with oil and money is not interested in the climate, and does not care about anyone or anything.”

His friend Clara that Trump is now so strong that he could “affect his daily life” from thousands of miles, in an era of unprecedented danger.

In light of President Trump’s comment on Ukraine’s military aid and his deep guidance in financing the security of Europe, Denmark was at the heart of leadership to enhance defense spending across the continent.

The country has just announced that it will allocate more than 3 % of GDP to defend spending in 2025 and 2026 to protect from future aggression from Russia or anywhere else.

Meanwhile, security analyst Hans Tino Hansen stands in front of a huge screen in what he calls the “OPS room”, at its headquarters in Copenhagen.

“This map is the place where we update daily the threat image based on alerts and accidents all over the world,” says Hans, who has managed risk risk over the past 25 years.

As part of the increase in the Danish defense spending, it enhances its power in the “High North” with an additional billion euros in January and three new naval ships in the Arctic and investment in long -range drones.

Hans believes that the Arctic security can be tightened, not through an American acquisition – but with new deals that restore American influence.

“If you conclude more agreements, whether on defense and security, but also economic or raw materials, we are somewhat back to where we were in the fifties and sixties.”

But the story runs back more than the middle of the twentieth century.

“If you look at this world, Greenland is the most located place on Earth,” says the professor of world -famous professor.

The lines of his room reflect the mood of a man who grew up in a settlement of “seven or eight people” only in the island’s Strait Nuk.

But the main reason for his homeland is now at the risk of increasing scrutiny of strangers is the rich metal deposits below the ice in the Arctic.

We have seen how Ukraine’s natural resources drew that President Trump was in the same way.

“All of these minerals they are talking about, such as rare minerals, and rare earth elements – they are actually not rare. What is rare is to use,” causes.

Professor Ross says that Greenland’s widening and infrastructure deficiency are only two elements that the island is the cash money that some Americans hope.

“It is a small part of the mining industry, and its extraction economy is very uncertain, while investing in starting extraction is very high. The risk of investing is very high for a possible gain.”

The current Greenland government says there will be a vote on independence in the post -elections next week.

Although it is certain that it is unintended, President Trump’s designs on the island shed light on the desire that were found among the in -end in the end 300 years of Danish control.

But Professor Rosse believes, despite all the underlying metal wealth, his colleagues in Greenland are not in a hurry to abandon the annual grant for the annual grant of 480 million pounds (570 million euros) that he receives from Copenhagen.

This easily represents more than half of the island’s general budget.

He says: “People talk about health services, schools, the next external engine they want on their boat, and what is the price of gas and all of these things that ordinary people do,” he says.

“It is not as if they were standing with a large knife, and they waved it in the air and screaming in independence, and independence.”

Regarding Trump’s obsession with Greenland, Vogly Rasmussen fears that there may be anxious conclusion.

One would make the Danish unable to do business with a man on his face about regional integrity not largely compatible with them.

“I understand the American strategic interest in minerals, but when it comes to mining in Greenland, they have not shown any attention,” he says.

“This is concerned that it may not be related to safety, and it may not be about minerals, perhaps just a matter of expanding the lands of the United States.

“This is in fact a point where we cannot accommodate President Trump.”

Additional reports by Kostas Kallergis