Alt for Norge

Today, a children's camp on Utoya Island was shot up and a government building in Oslo was blown up.  At the time of this writing, casualties number 16 dead with many more injured.  I expect the death toll to climb as some of those who were wounded at Utoya die and more bodies are uncovered in Oslo.

At the moment, no-one has taken responsibility for these atrocities, so we don't know if it was a terrorist group or the Norwegian equivalent of Timothy McVeigh.  My gut tells me it was some Islamic terror group, but we will see in the coming days.  Norway, like most European countries, has had its share of problems with Muslim immigrants and the terrorist fish that swim through that particular sea. However, the gunman at Utoya is described as Norwegian.

Norway is a NATO ally, and has stood with us in Afghanistan and elsewhere even as a fifth column of Islamists has threatened her.  Through the Cold War, Norway was one of the few NATO countries to actually border the Soviet Union.  Now is the time for us to repay 60 years of allegiance by standing with her.

In the late 1900's 1800's, my grandfather boarded a boat in Oslo.  He left behind the fishing and farming that his family had been doing for generations in the hard, cold land of Norway and sought a new life of hard work and prosperity in the hard cold land of North Dakota.  He found a job, raised two families, and passed on pride of being Norwegian to his sons and their sons.  Today, pride in being Norwegian needs to go beyond "Kiss me, I'm Norwegian" shirts, lefse, and krumkake.

My thoughts and prayers go out to my grandfather's countrymen and our allies in Norway.  We Norse have a reputation for being strong, stubborn, and hard to beat, and I hope that Norway lives up to that reputation in response to this atrocity.  With everything I have this day, I stand with Norway.