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> Nobody is going to war over this

I disagree. I think that the US could very easily trigger a war here (I suspect that's the intention), and not a war that would be contained to Greenland. It's not just about Greenland or Denmark, after all.

Greenland and Denmark have always been encouraging minerals deals etc, they just haven't materialized.

Agree, under threat of coercion.

> Nobody is going to war over this and Denmark/EU wants to save face.

I'm not so sure. Between all of Trump antics, and Russia's invasions, I think they're starting to realize that if you let the bully take the small things you don't especially care about, they're just going to demand bigger things.

As a European (but not Danish), I feel like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Denmark is quite proactive.

Out of curiosity, what do you think they should have done?

Take it? You mean go to war with NATO over Greenland?

They do not really care until the United States takes Greenland. Or NATO outright attacks Russia. Then they do care.

Because controlling Greenland means whoever has it gets excessive control over the Arctic Sea. And both parties, but especially Russia, do not want a party like the United States to have this amount of control given the Arctic is in their backyard.

Zero. Denmark belongs to the EU and NATO, and Greenland has always had a significant NATO military presence to deter any possible threat.

We already have military bases there and I'm sure Greenland wouldn't have cared if we asked for a few more. This is all to stroke someone's ego and get their name in a history book.

1. The U.S. has multiple bases in Greenland. Denmark, and NATO are also present.

2. Russia can't even expand their presence to Ukraine (not a NATO memeber).

3. China has no access.

So, 0%.

Today, the US can defend Greenland as part of NATO, and would have the support of the other NATO nations.

About 0%. China really has no serious interest in Greenland, and Russia isn't going to trigger direct confrontation with NATO. At least, unless NATO splinters, which is looking somewhat likely now with this foolish US administration.

Russia and China are just made-up excuses for Trump to do what he wants to do: steal territory, at gunpoint if needed.

In modern world if you want to estimate validity of the message it's a better heuristic to consider the source than the message itself.

Lets just say that Russia or China does some surprise attack and lands a bunch of troops in Greenland.

OK, great, they've got troops in Greenland. Now they have to keep them supplied. How are they going to do that? Well, either through the air or by sea.

Does either have a navy that can do that? No. Does either have an air force that can do that against US opposition? No.

So it's really unlikely. Even if China or Russia were stupid enough to do that, they could never hold it.

Now, perhaps the more interesting question: How likely does Trump think it is? Does he think it's real, despite the absurd impossibility of it? Or is he just saying fact-free stuff that he hopes some people will believe?

Honestly I think he's right. This is all for one man's vanity and the Republicans are fine with letting him do whatever he wants as long it means they get their policy wins and, more importantly, he doesn't post something nasty about them on Truth Social.

Dumbest fucking timeline ever.

Greenland made their choice: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3kw5ezepo

Let's hope it's respected

How about we not look for ways to rationalize our current evil behavior.

What has this got to do with anything. The History is now and the now is that Greenlanders own Greenland, they are independent from Denmark.

Denmark apologised to the indigenous people of the country.

Frankly if you voted for Donald Trump, you're a traitor to America.

Yeah, maybe this will make the case for converting France's arsenal to an EU arsenal.

There is a French tripwire force on the ground now as well. Denmark has allies.

How would nuclear deterrence work for small entities like Denmark or Taiwan against huge entities like US or China? it only works at similar sizes

> President Trump is a great wake up call for Europeans.

This is not a wake up call. This is more like being stabbed while sleeping over at your best friend's house.

> Not sure how this is relevant to anything.

You are not sure how it's relevant the main pillar of NATO is openly talking about military action against one of the founding members of NATO?

It's relevant since everything in your life right now if you live in any Western country is reliant on this partnership since the end of WW2. If it changes you'll live in a different world, not sure how this is not relevant to you.

Taking Greenland by force against a NATO (supposed?) ally would be the end of "the West" as a largely aligned block since WWII. The effects would be felt by everybody, including technologists.

Because the hacker community is worried about it, and because it is such a nonce thing to do yet it is still being threatened.

Sure the US could para a few soldiers in and raise the flag, but then what? US equipment and training isn’t designed for a country where the average temperature is above freezing for only 3 months of the year. When it’s minus 30 Celsius, lubricants gum up, batteries die and you need ice-breaker ships to resupply forces (which the US doesn’t have many of). Denmark and the other Nordic countries do have equipment and training designed for those conditions, and they know the (vast) landscape well, since they train there.

Imagine Afghanistan but against a modern, professional army and with the weather trying to kill you.

Which isn’t to say that it would be impossible, but certainly it would cost more in terms of casualties and money than most Americans realise.

> The issue won't come to military action.

How can you be so certain with that diaper-filler in chief?

Deploying troops looks like an attempt to dissuade invasion by highlighting that the optics of US troops capturing (hopefully not shooting at) NATO troops would be real bad...

Seema like you don’t want to be bothered about the ugly side of what you voted for.

It's about what happens globally after an occupation

> it would still last about ten minutes. Not sure how this is relevant to anything.

I don't think there's much doubt about a US success if it came to that. The relevance—and yes, this is highly relevant—is to determine what would be left of the current world order after those "ten minutes".