MFOHome About Commentary Discussions Funds The Best Resources Support Us!

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Categories

In this Discussion

Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.

    Support MFO

  • Donate through PayPal

Trump says using US military is ‘always an option’ for acquiring Greenland

Old_JoeOld_Joe
edited January 6 in Off-Topic
Following are excerpts from a current report in The Guardian:

European leaders are pushing back against US president’s desire to seek takeover of the arctic territory
Donald Trump and his team are looking into “a range of options” in an effort to acquire Greenland, noting in a White House statement on Tuesday that using the US military to do so is “always an option”.

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region. The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

In a show of solidarity on Tuesday, the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and other nations issued a joint statement with the prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, urging the US to respect its sovereignty. They wrote in the statement that Arctic security was a top priority for Nato, a defense alliance that includes the United States and Greenland: “Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

Frederiksen previously warned that an attack by the US on a Nato ally would mean the “end” of the military alliance and “post-second world war security”. It would, she said, be the end of “everything”. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, also urged Trump to give up his “fantasies about annexation” and accused the US of “completely and utterly unacceptable” rhetoric. “Enough is enough,” he said.

In an earlier interview with CNN, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller suggested Denmark does not have a right to the Arctic territory, which is a former Danish colony and remains part of its kingdom. While the mineral-rich island, home to 56,000 people, has control over most internal affairs, Copenhagen continues to oversee its foreign and security policy. Miller also claimed military intervention would not be needed to take over the island because “nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland”.

Greenland has repeatedly stated that it does not want to be part of the US. The idea is also unpopular in the US, where one poll found just 7% of Americans agree with a military seizure of Greenland. At a news conference in Paris, the ITV correspondent James Mates asked Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, who touted new commitments from the Trump administration to defend Ukraine: “What value do these commitments have on the very day that at the highest levels of government in Washington they are talking about seizing the sovereign territory of a fellow Nato member?”

Starmer said that he stood by the statement he made on Monday, when he said that “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must determine the future of Greenland and nobody else”.
Comment:   Actually, I'm beyond comment on this one. Just who the hell does Trump think he is and we are?

Comments

  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    'The future of Greenland' is solely up to the people of Greenland and Denmark Canada's prime minister says

    The Guardian is reporting:
    As the White House says that a military option for seizing the Danish territory of Greenland is under active consideration, Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, just met with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, in Paris, and stressed that “the future of Greenland and Denmark” must be “decided solely by the people of Denmark and Greenland.”

    Carney also stressed that Denmark and Canada “share a maritime border of 3,000 kilometers” and a close relationship through Nato.

    Carney also mentioned that Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, is about to visit Greenland: “I will be in Nuuk in the coming weeks to officially open Canada’s consulate and mark a concrete step in strengthening our engagement in support of Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including Greenland,” [said] Anand.
  • DrVenture
    Who exactly are these "adversaries in the Arctic region"?

    I guess it has become time for Canada to acquire nuclear weapons.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Well, I sure don't think that converting large chunks of Greenland into radioactive ice is such a great idea. Maybe something well short of "nuclear" would suffice.
  • DrVenture
    edited January 6
    No one actually needs to use such weapons, just wave them about like Putin and the DPRK and Israel, it keeps the solicitors off the front porch.

    Remember the furor when Russia was thinking about putting nukes in Cuba? Canada is much bigger and even closer.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Interesting. Might just work.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Following is additional information from current coverage in The Guardian:

    Joint statement by Nordic foreign ministers on Greenland rejects US advances on territory
    The foreign ministers of five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have rejected the Trump administration’s statement that it is reviewing options for “acquiring Greenland” in a joint statement on Tuesday.

    “We collectively reiterate that matters concerning Denmark and Greenland are for Denmark and Greenland to decide alone,” the foreign ministers write.

    The statement also says that the nations “support NATO increasing its presence and vigilance” in the Arctic region, but security “rests on respect for the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international law, including the inviolability of borders.”

    “The Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland, is a founding member of NATO,” the foreign ministers note, “and has historically worked closely with the United States on Arctic Security, including through the Defense Agreement between the US and Denmark from 1951, which offers opportunities for increased security cooperation.”
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Following is additional information from current coverage in The Guardian:

    Trump's claims about Greenland are misinformation, Denmark's foreign minister says
    Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, told reporters on Tuesday that he hopes Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, responds to a request from Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, for the three of them to meet soon to discuss threats from Donald Trump to seize the Danish self-governing territory.

    According to the Danish public broadcaster DR, Rasmussen said that such a meeting would give the Danes and Greenlanders a chance to correct what he called the false information Trump has used to argue that Greenland poses a threat to the security of the United States.

    That misinformation, the foreign minister said, includes false claims that there are a lot of Russian and Chinese ships around Greenland, and that China exerts great influence there through investments.

    Rasmussen spoke to reporters after an emergency session of Denmark’s foreign policy committee and defense ministry with just one item on the agenda: “The Kingdom’s relations with the United States”.

    Denmark’s defense minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said after the meeting that Denmark had spent billions to increase security in Greenland, not, as Trump had claimed this week, by adding just “one more dog sled”.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    edited January 6
    Following is additional information from current coverage in The Guardian:

    Senator Ruben Gallego moves to block Pentagon funds for Greenland invasions

    Senator Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and former marine who fought in Iraq, called the White House statement that Donald Trump is considering using the military to invade Greenland “INSANE” in a social media post and called for Congress to block the threatened invasion of Danish territory.

    In response to the news, Gallego wrote on Bluesky: “INSANE. This is why I’m taking action. Congress MUST act so I’m introducing my War Powers Resolution to stop this Dumbroe Doctrine.”

    Gallego has drafted an amendment to the Pentagon defense appropriations bill “To prohibit the use of funds for military force, the conduct of hostilities, or the preparation for war against or with respect to Greenland”.

    In his social media post, Gallego also made a mocking reference to Trump’s recent boast that his attack on Venezuela was a development of the 1823 Monroe doctrine, which the president claimed some were calling the “Donroe doctrine”.

    “This is not more complicated than the fact that Trump wants a giant island with his name on it,” Gallego added. “He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong. The US military is not a toy.”

    Comment:   But the "president" of the United States really believes that the US Military is precisely that- his "toy". And Senator Gallego is exactly correct: the man is INSANE.

    He evidently has been very impressed by Putin and Netanyahu's method of operation- "We've got lots of weapons and we can take anybody's territory and do whatever we want with anyone now living there because no one can stop us."


  • AnnaAnna
    edited January 7
    He just does things and, if it isn't in the appropriations, that's ok, put it on the credit card since the debt payments are a default part of the future appropriations. This will continue if nothing is done to stop it. Right now, it appears, SCOTUS has decided the US workers are liable for whatever future taxes he spends, whatever the reason/lies. Full-faith-and-credit = higher-income-taxes-for-workers!?
  • MarkMark
    "... using US military is ‘always an option’ for acquiring Greenland"

    That blathering IDIOT, it is NEVER an option.
  • CrashCrash
    Orange Slime and his minions are using an old tactic, maybe made most famous by uncle Joey Goebbels: repeat junk enough times, and it eventually becomes believable to the masses. Over time, it doesn't seem like junk anymore.... The nonsense they are spouting about Greenland fractures NATO and serves Putin's purposes: weaken NATO internally, if uncle Vlad cannot wreck it from the outside. Trumpy is a loose cannon, like a grenade thrown into the Alliance. No Dem or Rep could have imagined the junk we are living through on this score, until Trump came along, and there were enough really stoopid voters who were uninformed or just willfully blind enough to elect him... TWICE. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME." Putin wins. Did I mention that Orange Toad works to serve Vladimir's agenda? Why? Because Vlad has some serious Kompromat on Orange Donny.
Sign In or Register to comment.