Face the wall
So we’re going to war with Denmark now. That seems very sensible and useful.
Denmark is in “full crisis mode” after U.S. President Donald Trump once again set his sights on Greenland, following the strike on Venezuela.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security and Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you,” Trump said Sunday on Air Force One, echoing similar remarks made separately to The Atlantic magazine.
It has raised alarm in Denmark, which is responsible for the defense of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory.
“I have to say this very directly to the United States: It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Sunday in a Facebook post.
“The Kingdom of Denmark – and thus Greenland – is part of NATO and is therefore covered by the alliance’s security guarantee. We already have a defense agreement between the Kingdom and the United States today, which gives the United States wide access to Greenland,” Frederiksen said.
“I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have said very clearly that they are not for sale,” she added.
Has anybody sat Trump down and explained to him that Denmark is an ally not an enemy? That going to war against allies is a rooky error? That everyone will laugh at him?
The U.S. president, who has previously refused to rule out the use of military or economic force to take Greenland, named Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland last month.
The appointment was condemned by both Denmark and Greenland. Landry has publicly endorsed Trump’s push to bring Greenland under U.S. control.
That’ll be why he got the job.
If the US attacked Greenland and Denmark invoked NATO article 5, how would that work? I’m sure Putin’s keen to find out.
Nobel Peace Prize here I come.
Gah! We’ve done a lot of bad shit over the years, but if there’s one thing we’ve gotten right, it’s working with Western Europe and then, after the fall of the SU, most of the rest of Europe to keep the peace and promote prosperity. I’m not minimizing the Balkan wars or Russia’s various invasions of their neighbors, but anyone who knows history knows the fact that those conflicts haven’t spread to a general war and that most of Europe has been free of war for the past 80 years is something like a miracle.
And now Trump wants to blow it all up because, um, well, why? Polar bears?
Idiotic, dangerous, mad….
Probably for the same reason he wanted to grab the Kennedy Center. He wants to grab everything and stamp his name on it and strut around like a turkey saying mine mine mine I win I’m the biggest.
You’d think Trump the “Business Genius” would try persuading the Danes to sell Greenland to the US first, a la the Louisiana and Alaska Purchases. (“You’ll get bigley rich off this! It’s the Deal of the Century!”)
But no, it’s sabre-rattling all round.
He’s vying for the Nobel War Prize.
Well, this is definitely one way for him to get his wish that America no longer be part of NATO. The most disturbing thought I’ve had this week is that this might actually be the way out of this mess–because unlike purely nationalistic fascists, like Franco (who brutally ruled Spain for some 35 years, and is still a ‘mixed feelings’ figure in Spain to this day), imperialistic fascists, like Mussolini and Hitler, tend to be much shorter-lived, and usually die ugly, while being condemned even in their own nation after the fallout.*
So the upside of all this, I’m saying, is that Canada may end up burning down the White House, again, and then we have to spend a little while under occupation.
*: Hirohito is an exception to this, of course, but even he was forced to yield in a most humiliating fashion.
God, occupation by Canada sounds like bliss.
Oh, god, I remember being lectured years ago by the husband of one of my wife’s many cousins about how Spain was better when Franco was alive. Of course, he was a teenager when Franco croaked, and grew up to be a drunken lout.
And yes, I’d gladly welcome our Canadian overlords.