US President Donald Trump’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3 has emboldened him to proceed with the annexation of Greenland, a Danish-owned, self-governed territory, spelling the effective end of NATO and furthering Russia’s war aims in Ukraine, experts tell Al Jazeera.
“The move on Venezuela illustrates the Trump administration’s determination to dominate the Western Hemisphere – of which Greenland geographically is a part,” said Anna Wieslander, Northern Europe director for the Atlantic Council, a think tank.
“If the United States decides to attack another NATO country, then everything would stop – that includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security,” Frederiksen said.
“The pandering to Trump has been an element of our strategy over the last year, leaving observers hoping, but not entirely trusting, that another element of the strategy is preparing urgently for the final rupture with the United States,” Giles said.
Giles told Al Jazeera that Europe’s best option was to place a military deterrent on Greenland now, believing that putting allied troops in the Baltic States and Poland after 2017 deterred a Russian attack there.
Here is how the Greenland issue will likely play out. Trump doesn’t live in the real world and is too dumb to see the downside to what he is doing, so he will get Greenland one way or the other. The reasonable people on the other side see this, and have poor options. Either they sell Trump Greenland, notwithstanding all the reasons that this would be improper and unnecessary, or they stand firm and Trump moves in and takes it, which would effectively be an attack on a NATO country and trigger article 5. This would end NATO as we know it, as the U.S. would no longer be part of it (which Russia would love to see). If Denmark sells Greenland to the U.S. to appease Trump, they get some money and the fig leaf of NATO remains, as there is no attack on a NATO country. I believe that the latter course is more likely, as appeasement will disrupt the status quo much less, and history shows that appeasement of fascists is usually the first course of action (see, e.g., Chamberlain’s approach towards Nazi Germany in the 1930s.) Of course, this will only embolden Trump and his followers, as it will be seen as Trump’s great success.
Incidentally, if Trump were smart, what he would do is immediately start building up the base that the U.S. already has, and then get Denmark to agree to several additional bases, ideally in every town on the island, ostensibly to protect U.S. security interests. Then, use the bases to start pumping money into the local economy. Each base would have construction projects, personnel to feed and entertain, etc., etc. Suddenly, the locals would see dollars flowing into their pockets and their communities prosper. The U.S. could offer each citizen of Greenland $1 million tax free dollars if the country joins the U.S., and pressure Denmark to let Greenland put it to the vote. The population of Greenland is only 56,831, so the cost to purchase would be less than $57 billion. If Denmark balks, simply declare Greenland part of the U.S. and it’s citizens U.S. citizens, and make Denmark the bad guy for trying to strip Greenland of it’s right of self determination. If it goes to the vote, it seems highly probable that a majority the citizens would take the financial windfall and Greenland would become part of the U.S… On the outside chance that the citizens voted against their own financial interests, well, the U.S. would already have a ton of military already in place, and show its true colors and take it anyway. With this strategy, the U.S. could at least pretend to be the good guy.
If he was smart then he would just start mining, no one is opposing it.
If he was knowledgeable, he’d know it’s a dead end trying to mine stuff up there.
Nobody cares about mining anything in Greenland. Nobody actually cares about any resource in Greenland, or even the people in Greenland. Not strategically, anyway, before anyone gets it twisted. Rare earths, fine, whatever, that’s just a marginal distraction.
Greenland is the fence post on one side of the gate which allows NATO to control Russia’s potential naval passage into the Atlantic. At present Russia functionally cannot project any naval force to western Europe without literally going the long way around, all the way around Asia and Africa and past the tip of Cape Town, etc. Not at all coincidentally, the vestiges of the Cold War are why the US has always been so keen to maintain a military presence on Greenland in the first place.
With Greenland out of the picture and the US theoretically also on Russia’s side rather than NATO, Putin stands a much greater chance of being able to get his warships into the Atlantic by hugging the coast of Greenland and then subsequently threaten the rest of Europe.
So Greenland is vital for Europe’s security, but not exactly for the US…great…
Yes. And also while we’re at it, just remember who has been whispering in Trump’s ear all the goddamn time.
There’s supposed to be a huge untapped oil field that Greenland and Denmark refuse to explore. That’s what Trump is after.
Man if the US offered me 1 million to take my province I’d change my tune so fast though. I’d be like “sweet thanks you fat idiot fucks” and then I would use that money to move somewhere far away from this stupidity immediately.
You really think there’s anywhere that’s far enough away?
Cassian Andor found that out
Theres some countries who are certain to remain neutral, Vietnam’s foreign policy has always been “don’t get dragged into another war”, Kazakhstan makes a lot of money helping Russia evade sanctions, Colombia is basically un-invadable. New Zealand is expensive, but they’re pretty uninvolved AFAIK.
Moving to the Netherlands would paradoxically allow you to be high enough away.
Nah but I think it would be more fun to ride out in like Denmark or some shit.
No reason you couldn’t take his money, then vote No. That’s what I’d do. I don’t owe any loyalty to a corrupt, treasonous, racist, rapist, pedophile. He’s cheated countless people in his life, I have a moral responsibility to cheat him back, and take his money away from him.
Take his money, vote no, leave, move to a country where a million dollars lets you live like a king and be served by beautiful phillipino boys until I die. Thats my plan with my hypothetical that will never happen because
One: A capitalist would never offer that level of economic freedom to a working class body of that magnitude and
B: I don’t live in Greenland.
Valid.
Money only gets paid out if Greenland joins the U.S. in this hypothetical. And it would go to all citizens, not just people who voted yes.
Anyone believing in getting money promised by a grifter well known for not paying his bills deserves to be cheated.
If the money is coming from Trump, I’m going to be like Chuck Berry or Aretha Franklin, and insist on payment in advance, in cash, delivered BEFORE I vote. And my vote remains a secret, or no deal.
It would be hilarious if everybody took the deal, and voted against him anyway.
At least, it would be hilarious until he got enraged, and bombed the entire country in revenge.
You really think they would give the money to them before Greenland joined? And in fact - once it joined who actually guarantees they’d get it, lol. They might just claim, this is part of the infrastructure the US provides for Greenland
They won’t provide any infrastructure though. They’ll be happy to say it’s for the “service” of administrating Greenland and for the “security” provided.
I do not think they will be offering everyone in Greenland a million dollars.
He already offered 100k, but what is an offer from a grifter well known for not paying his bills worth?
Yeah exactly.