U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s arrival in Iceland with military jets and armed personnel set eyes popping Wednesday in a nation consistently ranked as the world’s most peaceful.
The size and standards of the vice president’s security detail also required adjustments. The guards protecting Pence got backup from a police force that only allows elite “Viking SWAT” members carry guns.
Icelandic authorities gave U.S. personnel special permission to carry firearms. Bomb-sniffing dogs were cleared to enter the country because of a strict quarantine for imported animals.
Pence is the first U.S. vice president to visit Iceland, a country of just 350,000 people, since George H.W. Bush came to Reykjavik in 1983.
The Reykjavik Metropolitan Police requested backup from police stations in neighboring towns and villages to meet U.S. manpower standards.
“This is incredibly expensive,” Police Chief Asgeir Asgeirsson told the Morgunbladid daily newspaper.
But Helgi Hafsteinsson, an employee at a gas station in Keflavik, welcomed the heavy traffic caused by Pence’s visit.
“It is great for business,” he said.
Before Pence’s arrival, U.S. Secret Service personnel spent weeks scouting locations. Icelandic President Gudni Th. Johannesson travels unaccompanied on private errands and is often spotted in a geothermal bath popular with locals.
All the moving parts required for the vice president’s safety tied up transportation in the capital. Police closed off main roads to accommodate the convoy that drove from the airport to Reykjavik.
Drivers lamented the traffic on social media. Satirical newspaper Fréttirnar mocked that “Americans intended to give every Reykjavik citizen a paralyzing drug during Pence’s visit.”
Helicopters hovered over the government building where Pence met with Icelandic eland’s officials as snipers perched on neighboring rooftops.
Ahead of Pence’s arrival, three CV-22B Osprey flew over southwestern Iceland, along with two C-130 Hercules and one Lockheed C-5 Galaxy.
Not bad for a Big Boy,
VIVA TRUMP, VIVA PENCE
VIVA THE YANKEES
VIVA COLOMBIA
Better Safe than Sorry!!!
At least no BLM protests to read about.
Iceland may be peaceful,but the slug ruskies are close and the chinese are close enough.Then there are the dimwit iranians and north korea and ALL of them hate AMERICA and are very jealous.So thats what we in AMERICA deal with.
I wish the article gave the reason why Vice President Pence visited Iceland. Was he invited? If so, Iceland knew that, although Icelanders may be “peace-loving,” there are many decidedly non-peace-loving individuals and government agents of hostile countries who would be planning ‘vacations’ to Iceland at the time any high-ranking US official visited.
Perhaps, before considering foreign travel, it is best America’s leaders consider who our real friends are and who feel put out by a friendly, non-threatening visit by a US government official.
Pence probably went to Iceland for Military security reasons, and to reassure Iceland that we have there backs should they have an attempted take over by Russia. Russia has been known for absorbing neighboring countries to expand Russian Territory. Russia has a long history of expanding Russian Territory going back to the 16th. Century or more. If I’m not mistaken, but I’m pretty sure that’s been Russia’s M.O. for Centuries. I want to assure smaller North Eastern and Norwegian countries that the United States has their backs.