[Chance-Device]

I’ll put myself in the minority here by saying that I think Trump is probably right. Greenland can’t be credibly defended by Denmark, the EU or even NATO. Article 5 is an untested foundation myth. Greenland is far away. Political will matters. We might be heading towards an independent Greenland if we continue following the status quo, which would be influenced strongly by adversaries and would be a US security nightmare.

I’d say that I prefer him to go about it a different way, except that I can’t see what that different way looks like when you want territory from another country that doesn’t want to give it to you.

And I say this as a European. Europe is not credible from a defense perspective and lacks the will to do very much of anything quickly or effectively. The best you can expect is a series of talking shops and some policy documents to be drawn up while the ice continues to melt.

[mna_]

>Article 5 is an untested foundation myth.

See:

>NATO invoked Article 5 in response to Al Qaeda's terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001

https://www.nato.int/en/what-we-do/introduction-to-nato/coll...

Now take a look at the European countries who helped the US:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War

Then scroll down to "Dead". Those Europeans died for the United States.

[Incipient]

If trump is actually deranged enough to use military force against Greenland we'll see how capable the EU is of defending it - and I suspect they'll put on a good show.

What the EU wouldn't be able to handle, I suspect, is would be a full ground invasion by China, not that China would/needs to do that.

If the US was genuinely concerned about the security of Greenland they should have discussed this with the EU and encouraged them to reinforce the island, and/or offered a joint base.

[optionalsquid]

> If the US was genuinely concerned about the security of Greenland they should have discussed this with the EU and encouraged them to reinforce the island, and/or offered a joint base.

This is where it gets stupid... well, stupider.

The US already has a base on Greenland, namely the Pituffik Space Base / Thule Air Base [1].

The US used to have a larger military presence in Greenland, including other bases, but choose to downscale their presence following the end of the cold war [2].

This presence was predicated on the 1951 Defense of Greenland agreement between Denmark (and later the autonomous government of Greenland) and the US, which allowed the US great freedom in establishing their military presence in Greenland [3].

If Trump had just wanted a stronger military presence in Greenland, then all he would have had to do was ask, and Denmark and Greenland would most likely have agreed. Denmark, in particular, has done its best to align itself with the US, and Greenland, prior to Trump, was also interested in a closer relationship with the US as part of their move towards greater independence from Denmark.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pituffik_Space_Base

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland#United_States_and_th...

[3] https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/den001.asp