Donald Trump said Friday his administration will take action on Greenland “whether they like it or not,” further escalating his rhetoric as he pushes to acquire the Danish territory for the U.S.
The comments came during a meeting with oil executives to discuss the prospect of doing business in Venezuela. Less than a week earlier, the U.S. military invaded the oil-rich South American nation and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
Denmark and its European allies in NATO – the military alliance co-founded by the U.S. – have pushed back, reiterating that Greenland is not for sale. But the Trump administration nevertheless says it is currently weighing a range of options on Greenland, including utilizing the U.S. military or cutting a deal to purchase it from Denmark.
The rest of NATO need to put troops in Greenland, today, with clear orders to fire on any invading force, even if its the US.
If there’s one clear and obvious pattern with Trump’s use of military power, it’s that he likes quick, easy, low cost military operations. One day of airstrikes, one special forces raid, declare victory, go home. Either he or the people around him understand that America has no stomach for a war right now. The American right have been beating the anti-war drums hard for the last decade. But surgical military operations win public because they’re already over before anyone can react. Look, see, no Iraq style quagmire. Trump gets it done, no problems. Not like those other idiots.
All of which adds up to the conclusion that Trump will not want to spark a war with the entirety of NATO. But he’s extremely confident that if he steals Greenland fast enough, NATO won’t want a war to take it back.
This is why the defence of Greenland has to be pre-emptive. A clear commitment to a fight, before the US can put boots on the ground. Do that, and Trump will back down. The right wing politics of today are not the right wing politics of 2001. He doesn’t want a war, he wants an easy victory. We cannot offer him one.
IMO NATO’s focus should be on reinforcing the Canadian border with the US and make Americans realize that Trump is brining war to their doorstep if moving on Greenland. Mark Carney should be the American sounding face of the reasonable free world, pleading to the US to not let it happen. Hopefully a critical mass of Americans would side against the war and stop it before it happens.
As a Canadian, obviously I would take an help offered, but I do strongly believe that Greenland is where we need to draw the line in the sand. Again, I don’t think Trump has the stomach for an actual war. I think he knows how much that would sink his popularity with the people who most strongly support him. A war with Canada would be an especially difficult sell.
I’m not remotely dismissing the possibility that it could happen. Trust me, my wife is in the CAF, she’d be on the front fucking line if it did. There’s shit I know that I can’t even fucking talk about when it comes to those kinds of conversations. But I think the key here is that he’s really looking for quick easy wins. That’s Trump’s whole mentality. It’s all about what you can steal before anyone notices you got away with it. He’s a conman and a thief by nature. Greenland is where NATO can show Trump the will to stand up to him, and deny him the easy, cheap wins that he wants. It won’t end the threat, but at this point I’m really not sure if anything NATO does can end the threat of the US without a world war. I think the only thing, realistically, that can be done is to buy time for the people in America to get their fucking shit together and end this nightmare.
Americans can’t stop themselves from telling other countries what to even when they want other countries to solve their problems for them.
The US will be stopped but it’s gone beyond Trump. It won’t be anything flashy to entertain Americans that enjoy watching people die on their screens. It’ll be a slow decline and collapse of the USA. American culture has become so toxic to the world that the USA needs to be permanently dismantled. It will take decades, but it needs to be done.