DANISH VETERANS

Denmark is not used to being at war. The catastrophic defeat by Prussia in 1864 was the making of the country, both economically and socially, as the population turned inwards in the aftermath. Denmark stayed out of the First World War and was occupied for most of the Second. Nor did it have the large number of colonies that have provided fertile opportunities for military action during the past 50 years. Compare that record with (say) Britain, which during the same period took part in the Crimean War, the Zulu Wars and other 19th century colonial adventures, the Boer War, the First World War, the Irish Civil War, the Second World War, the Korean War, Malaya, the Mau Mau Rebellion, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, and the Falkland Islands. Plus other bits and pieces along the way.

However, in this new century Denmark has been fighting alongside Britain and the U.S. in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister at the time and now Secretary General of Nato, led the country into battle, but did not think through some of the consequences. An almost miraculous absence of casualties early on has led to the usual drip drip of young men returning home in coffins, or - in some ways worse - with horrific and lifelong injuries. Those injuries include psychological scarring and trauma. Yet until last year, when an annual Flag Day was introduced, Denmark had no official ceremony for remembering its military personnel (such as the annual 11 November Armistice Day in the U.K.) and no organisation for veterans akin to the British Legion or the US$90 billion U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Which makes today's belated announcement by the Government of a veterans' policy all the more welcome. True, a number of the 19 points in the programme are general in nature, waffly even (eg an investigation into the effects on soldiers' partners and children). And the money involved pales in comparison with that spent in other countries. But it is a start. Not least in the recognition that if a society decides to go to war, then there will be adverse consequences that that same society needs to face and deal with.

Walter Blotscher