The president’s insane Greenland obsession won’t die:
President Trump called for negotiations for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, saying it was vital to secure North America.
The U.S. has never needed to own Greenland to secure North America, and there is nothing to negotiate. Greenland is not “our territory,” it never has been, and it never will be if the people of Greenland have anything to say about it. The president is a deranged revisionist who wants to “reclaim” territory that has never belonged to our country.
The president’s claim that his expansionist mania has something to do with security is a lie. Trump’s fixation on Greenland is akin to Smeagol’s desire for the Ring. “We wants it” is the sole motivation behind this. The president is driven by nothing but gnawing greed.
Trump said that he won’t use force to steal Greenland. No one should believe him when he says that, but it is no consolation when he is willing to use coercion and threats to intimidate the people of Greenland and Denmark. Even if he doesn’t launch an armed takeover, he is still threatening and attacking a neighboring country to take control of it. No matter how he seeks to rob our ally of its territory, he remains a thief trying to grab what doesn’t belong to him.
There used to be a much larger U.S. military presence on the island during the Cold War. When the Soviet Union ceased to exist, there was no longer any conceivable reason to have so many bases there. If there were a real threat that needed to be countered in the Arctic, the U.S. would be permitted under the existing treaty with Denmark to establish more bases, but of course there is no threat that requires anything like this.
So far the response from leading European governments has been surprisingly firm. Even the miserable Keir Starmer said that Britain would not yield to American pressure on this question. European governments can usually be counted on to cave to Washington with alacrity on most things, but by threatening the territorial integrity of a European state Trump may have found the one issue where they won’t budge.
