Denmark's defence minister, Søren Gade , has made it clear that no Danish troops will be sent to Lebanon to take part in an eventual peace keeping force, regardless of calls from the Socialist opposition to that end. He is quoted at DR nyheder as saying the government has not debated the matter, but given Denmarks current commitments, he canot see any way such a force can be created given Denmarks current military capabilities.
This ties in with news I read yesterday that the Danish Army is having difficulty meeting its commitments. Some 1,200 odd positions require filling. Given the small size of Denmak's current military obligations, this doesn't bode well. Denmark has just over 100 soldiers in Afghanistan, including special forces and approximately 550 troops in Iraq. Denmark also has 380 KFOR soldiers in the Balkans. The Afghan force is to be boosted in size, but not to any great number.
Recently I also read that the Danish military had even trained a National Guard unit to go to Iraq. This is pretty amazing since, having served four years in the Guard I am pretty well acquainted with it and I am amazed that we have become so weak as to have to rely on our last line of defence for over sea's operations... such a thing was inconceiable in my day (from 90 to 94)... especially given the restructuring that was supposed to give the Danish military just the sort of over sea's capability which it now seems we don't have...
The latest Defence agreement ("Defence agreement 2005-2009") was signed June 10, 2004, and calls for a significant re-construction of the entire military. From now about 60% support structure and 40% combat operational capability, it is to be 40% support structure and 60% combat operational capability. E.g. more combat soldiers and less 'paper'-soldiers. The reaction speed is increased, with an entire brigade on standby readiness; the military retains the capability to continually deploy 2.000 soldiers in international service or 5.000 over a short time span. The standard mandatory conscription is modified. Generally this means lesser conscripts, lesser service time for them and only those who choose to will continue into the reaction force system. From Wikipedia
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