ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a specific form of politics that can be perceived as a way to manage potential challenges to the legitimacy of the military mission in Afghanistan. The many rituals connected with the dead soldiers that were developed during the International Security Assistance Force mission. The chapter investigates how the military deaths in Afghanistan are rendered meaningful and legitimised through these new and reinvented state/military-initiated rituals. As the Danish Flag-Flying Day example illustrates, the new military rituals surrounding European military deaths are forcefully and publicly manifested. The national unity that is enacted in the rituals relies on what might be perceived as a paradox: Repeating and establishing sharp and visually evident hierarchies. The rituals tend to be characterised by nearly endless boundary-drawing, such as separating the Queen from the other royals, the royals from the rest of the audience, and the audience from the rest of the people.
