• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    A government spokesperson for Germany also confirmed to Reuters that soldiers would be sent to Greenland on Thursday. The country is expected to deploy over a dozen reconnaissance troops, according to the report.

    :-/

    This feels like the time Poland sent eight soldiers in with the US invasion of Iraq.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        200, in the year of the invasion. It swelled to 2,500 over the next five years, then trickled away into a final withdrawal a month before the Republicans lost the White House in 2008.

        There were smaller deployments - Iceland sent 2 soldiers, for instance. But it all paled behind the the US at 150k and UK at 46k. Which goes back to the whole problem with a NATO internal conflict. The US is the backbone of European defense. Again, what do any of these countries plan to do against an aircraft carrier group? Nobody seems to have a serious answer.

    • BuneZT@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Hi. I have to step in about Polish soldiers :p I don’t know what you’re referring to but there were 2500 Polish soldiers deployed to Iraq, 150 wounded and 28 dead. That was during very hard economic times for Poland, still recovering from communism. Somehow they found money for this and sent them with really shitty equipment (cars “armoured” with bulletproof vests on the doors as protection for example)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_involvement_in_the_Iraq_War

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        That was during very hard economic times for Poland, still recovering from communism.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcerowicz_Plan#Effects

        :-/ Like saying they’re still recovering from a charlie horse after you put a shotgun to their kneecaps.

        But yes, Poland limped into the Iraq War and managed to catch several hundred strays over the course of the conflict. In exchange, the Bush Administration kicked the country back $200M in relief (contingent on further privatization and financialization of their nascent market system).

        Blood money spends well, at least.