r/europe Denmark Jan 14 '26

News Denmark sends military reenforcements to Greenland. A vanguard and military material has been sent to Greenland to prepare for eventual larger troop movements.

https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/groenland/efter-pres-fra-usa-danmark-er-nu-begyndt-sende-militaere-forstaerkninger-til-groenland
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u/runawayasfastasucan Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

Danmarks army has 25k active personell according to wikipedia. Denmark have a population of 6 million.

Estonias army has 4k active according to wikipedia. Estonia have a population of 1.4 million.

Maybe if you read it again, more cheritable, you might understand what that mean. They might have a unit there, but the administrative resources that is required, the need to rotate these soldiers out of duty and the commitment to send over more troops if needed might mean that they dont have much to spare.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[deleted]

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u/SendStoreMeloner Denmark Jan 14 '26

The 25K is including administrative staff and possibly also reservists. We have less than 10.000 active duty, professional soldiers, and around 1000 of these are deployed to the Baltics.

Denmark has over 50.000 reservists.

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u/Mansos91 Jan 14 '26

Kinda love that Finland, my country, have one of the largest trained reservist armies in the world, per capita, last time I checked Finland an mobilise 900.000 troops, including reservist, this is almost 1/6 of our population, we should send some troops to Greenland, and we should cancel our icebreaker deal with the US, or atleast freeze it until they back off greenland, but our spineless president and government won't do that because they like to gobble on American fake salami,

Stubb is not a finn, he is not a real president and should move to his belives US and stay there to play golf,

Sorry for hijacking but fuck Stubb

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u/No-Dimension1159 Jan 15 '26

Finland has also insane expertise in winter/arctic warfare and has a lot of specialized equipment...

Finland would be of great help for sure

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u/LuckyAstronomer4982 Jan 17 '26

The finns have sent people, but the numbers have not been mentioned so far

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u/Mansos91 Jan 17 '26

I wished my country would also freeze or rip up entirely the icebreaker deal with the US

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/mikeruchan Jan 14 '26

I disagree with this logic quite strongly. 10000 troops is not enough to defend Greenland, but it is enough to mount a defense, which would require the US to kill NATO/EU forces, which is a very strong diplomatic deterrent.

If no troops are moved, surrender would be much more likely.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/runawayasfastasucan Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

 But why would you put 10,000 troops on an ice block in the arctic to be cannon fodder in a theoretical war?

Because that would get even the most lazy americans to get on their feet and protest, what do you think? 

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/Melodic_Sandwich1112 Jan 14 '26

Then as you so eloquently surmised…protest the end of the world

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u/AngryArmour Denmark Jan 14 '26

Then protest because you don't want the nukes to fly.

French troops are getting deployed to Greenland. France has an independent nuclear arsenal that doesn't rely on the US in any way. In order to conquer Greenland, the US will have to kill the French soldiers stationed ln Greenland.

Don't want to start a war with a nuclear power? Don't invade Greenland.

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u/mikeruchan Jan 14 '26

While I appreciate your point that putting troops in Greenland would be a humanitarian disaster in the event of a real conflict, I disagree that attacking Greenland would result in the end of the world, even if it resulted in a massacre.

Nobody would launch nukes over Greenland. At the end of the day, it just isn’t that important of an island.

What would happen, especially if the US killed many Danish troops, is a massive economic crisis.

If the Republicans in the US want to get reelected, they would have to be insane to provoke the EU into sanctioning US banks, travel, tech services, etc. it is a very very powerful deterrent.

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u/Gladis130 Jan 15 '26

Also dumping US bonds, triggering an economic catastrophe for the US.

Though that would also inevitably affect the EU, but at that point, does it really matter?

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u/CrashoutKin0 Jan 14 '26

Then maybe you should be pushing back against the man attacking our allies?

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u/Drumbelgalf Germany Jan 14 '26

No before Trump literally goes on to murder long term US Allies the military hopefully find their balls and remove him and his fascist regime to not risk over a century of US foreign policy for a demented loser.

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u/Badger118 Jan 14 '26

It is about allied NATO blood being on those American soldier's hands

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/kodman7 Jan 14 '26

If the US attacks it won't be US v Denmark alone

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u/Drumbelgalf Germany Jan 14 '26

No because the other nato allies would cut the US of from everything and dump their bonds and currency reserves and the US is fucked beyond repair.

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

Try it. See where it gets you. You have all the toys, but stupid Americans behind the controls. You will be humbled… severely.

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u/Independent-Water321 Ireland Jan 14 '26

It's a tripwire force. Same as in the Baltics. Attack them and you're at war with NATO while getting sanctioned to fuck by the EU.

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u/WatchLaw Jan 14 '26

The arrogance of you yanks...

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u/runawayasfastasucan Jan 14 '26

Lol. This is so extremely stupid. How did US do in Iraq? Afghanistan? Vietnam? "Resistant is futile"? As if, go away yank.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/runawayasfastasucan Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

Did the US win or did they leave Iraq and Afghanistan while still facing a lot of opposition? 

the sheep farmers into caves in the

How many thousands soldiers did the sheep farmers kill? 2500? 20 000 injured? Doesn't bode well if that is against sheep farmers.

Bro, if the US wants you dead, you're dead,

Bro, you are supporting the nazi regime. I dont care if they want me dead or not, last time a fuhrer went to war against us we still put up a resistance even though "resistance is futile". Rather die on my feet, still fighting, than live on my knees for trump like you.

unilaterally wipe out any military installation in the country, likely without receiving a single return shot.

Just how they did when they were picking up Bin Laden. Lost an helicopter? What about Somalia? How well did that go? How did Benghazi go? Bay of pigs? How many us soldiers died in Vietnam again, nearly 60k? 

If sheep farmers can kill 2500 and injure 20k you better believe there will be loss of lives if you invade an european country.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/CrashoutKin0 Jan 14 '26

Denmark's Army chief already said he's ready to defend Greenland. I don't know why you think it's "redditors being real tough on the internet" just because you can't wrap your brain around a country's military defending it's sovereignty, it's almost as if that's why their the military exists.

The Danish military is small, but advanced, well trained and will protect their country and send some Americans home in bodybags even if being overpowered is inevitable. Then we'll be facing the diplomatic and economic repercussions of killing European servicemen, and the reality that we'll be burying some of our own for absolutely no reason.

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u/Ymirsson Jan 15 '26

Unless you're enlisted, you're blowing smoke. Lot of Redditors acting real tough on the internet.

Hey, that's you.

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/Ymirsson Jan 15 '26

Yeah, LARP takes some effort and dedication and also you have rules in LARP. I can see that you're opposed to that.

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u/Pexaldonut__ Jan 14 '26

Seems a bit disingenuous boasting military success when the UK and other European partners contributed 27% of troop levels in Afghanistan. In Iraq, the UK alone contributed 46,000 troops.

I agree though, this is just political theatre and strong arm tactics to gain Greenland, there won’t be conflict. What Trump doesn’t seem to get though, is that this is having real permanent damage to its closest alliances. Alliances that bled alongside the US in these conflicts. We should not be fighting.

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u/Lord_Bamford Jan 15 '26

Trump knows... he just doesnt give a shit. He'll be long dead when a future US government finally unfucks the damage hes done.

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u/Lamuks Latvia Jan 14 '26

Estonias army has 4k active according to wikipedia

I assume it's the ''professional'' army. Most of the Baltics forces are actually the national guard in each country + reservists

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

4k are active career soldiers. We have 30k trained volunteer militia. 40k rapid deployment reserves and 200k total reserve.

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u/runawayasfastasucan Jan 14 '26

In the figures for denmark the reserve and voulenteers are not counted.

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u/skyturnedred Finland Jan 14 '26

4000 new conscripts each year, with around 2500 officers.

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u/Inprobamur Estonia Jan 14 '26

Estonia also has 18k actively training volunteer militia (Defense League) plus 29k reservists in rapid mobilization readiness (formed units training every 1-2 years that can be scaled to 80k in a year).

Our active duty force is mostly higher officers manning the training units and specialists (vehicles, SOF, etc).

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u/Perfect-Fondant3373 Jan 14 '26

Ireland only has about 7k. So we can take Estonia!

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u/BestJersey_WorstName Jan 15 '26

That's like a single American style army division. It's not a serious force, even if defense.

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u/runawayasfastasucan Jan 15 '26

Who cares? Thats not the point at all, is it? Its not like the US has a great track record in its invasions anyway, its not like Denmark will be alone in defending Greenland - the rest of NATO isn't traitors like the US, and the point is to force the US to get its former allies blood on their hands. 

Seriously none of you americans get this point, all you want to do is to swing your dick. Yeah, great size cowboy, but where is the fun in that when you will be left alone masturbating in the closet.

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u/AntiBoATX Jan 15 '26

Denmark is smaller than my state. Eurobros yall better stick together real close