• Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    “We are going to do something in Greenland, whether they like it or not, because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

    Russia is literally already our neighbor via Alaska. It’s like right there, you can see it from the governor’s house!

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      18 hours ago

      The pattern with Trump has been to launch limited, flashy military actions like strikes on Yemen, Iran, and the kidnapping in Venezuela. These moves keep the news cycle going without deep commitment. Occupying Greenland fits this model perfectly. It’s low risk with nobody likely to fight back, and Europeans are too diplomatically constrained to do anything about it.

      • BanMeFromPosting [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        12 hours ago

        But they’re already occupying Greenland, they’ve got a base there already as well as an open invitation to re-establish more bases. How do you occupy a place you’re already occupying?

      • SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml
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        16 hours ago

        I think this also reflects Trump’s contempt for the EU. Compared to the annexation of Greenland, the operations you mentioned were far more limited in scope, and had little impact on the broader strategic landscape. To invade and occupy the world’s biggest island (albeit sparsely inhabited) has significant, lasting consequences on a global scale that his prior military actions hadn’t.

        Given that Trump seems genuinely averse to entangling his forces too deeply, it’s pretty clear he believes the EU to be as incapable, if not even less so, as countries like Iran or Venezuela.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlOP
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          16 hours ago

          Absolutely, annexing Greenland is also a disciplinary action for Europe. It’s basically the US telling Europeans that the US does whatever it wants and they’re just going to have to suck it up. The EU is basically trapped now because they rely entirely on the US military protection, and now they have strong and angry Russia on their border. The current European leadership worked themselves into a frenzy about Russia, and they don’t have any path towards reconciliation now. So, they basically need to keep the US in at all costs, and they will endure any humiliation to do that.