…or are his troops merely passing by…
We already have Venezuela, preventing anyone from getting South America as a continent, and a large enough force in Greenland will stop anyone from breaking up North America, so not much more is needed to secure the continent and get 5 bonus armies each turn.
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An American purchase of Greenland could be the deal of the century
There are so few people in Greenland relative to the strategic importance you could basically just make everyone there a millionaire…
Oh! Is that why they call it Greenland?!?!
They call it “Greenland” to make its icy wilderness seem more inviting. :?
The argument is at least plausible. But, if the Greenlanders want to sell out, it seems they should run an auction. There are other countries that might offer a better deal, that haven’t threatened to send troops.
They could even split the sale. Sell military base rights along the Artic Ocean to the US, but sell mineral rights to a consortium of Canada, Norway, Germany, Denmark, and the UK (for example).
I suspect that people who live in Greenland have different material desires than people who live in someplace more inhabited.
I’d imagine it might corrupt the deal to try to split their fealty into two, but do think it would be interesting for them to entertain multiple offers… I’d be surprised if anyone aside the US has the interest and means, even as a consortium, to come close to a reasonable offer though
Probably heavy jackets I’d assume…
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From what I have been told by people here in the UK that used to work for BP (geologists) it will be stupidly expensive to develop those mineral sites.
The whole minerals angle doesn’t make much sense in the medium term. If climate change accelerates, and you end up with larger areas of Greenland without permafrost you might get at those minerals faster (and cheaper), but it wouldnt move the needle that much.
I personally think this comes down to wanting to project power in the Arctic via bases scattered around Greenland.
What makes this all idiotic is that the US can easily do this already, as its agreement with Denmark does allow for this already.
I moderately seriously think that the driving force is Trump is used to the Mercator projection, and on that Greenland looks freaking huge. And his advisors feel that there could be some benefit to having permanent control of our military bases there rather than relying on diplomatic relations with NATO countries knowing that Trump wants to pull out of NATO, so they aren’t giving him appropriate pushback.
By that logic, he should be telling Santa Claus that he’s planning to take over the North Pole. That thing spans the whole globe!!!
I don’t think the US wanting Greenland is a crazy Trump idea. Threatening to attack them is the crazy Trump part, but the relevance of the Arctic isn’t really news anymore. Being able to have bases on an ally’s territory isn’t the same as being sovereign US territory.
And then you layer on increasing access to strategic resources… if Trump was a better salesman he would have sweet talked the Greenlanders a year ago into a sale, rather than wound them up with silly tweets.
Don’t forget Kamchatka. I hear you can see Russia from your house in Alaska.
Rules of engagement are being set.
Someone took the following pic of what was on Trump’s desk in that room right off of the Oval Office:
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Ooo! Ooo-ooo-ooo!!! I want the Greeen one!
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No one can defend Asia early on!
The Ukraine is weak!
More EU troops are necessary in Greenland to make the damage from a US takeover large enough to prevent it.