Greenland is valuable. But it is not up for grabs, the US has no more right than any country.
Our security needs can and should be met because we have a 1951 treaty right to have bases and a military presence. We don’t need to own it or create world chaos that’s just feeding Trump ego.
The US has bases in nearly 800 locations around the world in countries that are not part of the United States.
Access to the minerals is a matter of negotiation with Denmark and the people of Greenland, not by bullying and threats. And in a rational sans-Trump world would consider…
Environmental protection
Indigenous and local opposition
Harsh climate and infrastructure challenges
Political restrictions, especially around uranium mining
Rare Earth Elements (REEs)
Greenland is especially known for these.
Neodymium
Dysprosium
Praseodymium
Terbium
Use: Wind turbines, electric vehicles, electronics, military tech
Notable area: Kvanefjeld (Kuannersuit) in southern Greenland
“U.S. Reaches Greenland Security Agreement The deal, which will enhance American military presence on the Arctic island, falls short of the president’s stated takeover ambitions.”
Formalizes and makes indefinite US presence and exclusion of non-NATO country development and incursions.
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Didn’t we have a long standing treaty to place military bases on Greenland just by asking? We had more and removed some years ago as I recall. Wonder why we didn’t take this approach instead of all the buying and takeover bluster we endured?
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We had a treaty, yes. The idiot ass Trump has his own way of seeking to adjust the terms. Not how I would have done it. However, had I been in Roosevelt’s and Truman’s shoes during WWII, the price to defend Greenland would have included an option to buy it and add it as a US possession.
I would not have released the Canal Zone in 1979. The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty granted the U.S. permanent control of the Canal Zone for $10 million upfront and $250,000 annually. That was real money in 1904. The U.S. took over from a failed French effort, conquered yellow fever and malaria, excavated the Culebra Cut, and officially opened the waterway on August 15, 1914.
The United States began expanding beyond North America in 1856 with the passage of the Guano Islands Act, causing many small and uninhabited, but economically important, islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean to be claimed. Most of these claims were eventually abandoned, largely because of competing claims from other countries.
The Pacific expansion culminated in the annexation of Hawaii in 1898, after the overthrow of its government five years previously.
Alaska, the last major acquisition in North America, was purchased from Russia in 1867.
Support for the independence of Cuba from the Spanish Empire, and the sinking of the USS Maine, led to the Spanish–American War in 1898, in which the United States gained Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and occupied Cuba for several years.
American Samoa was acquired in 1900 after the end of the Second Samoan Civil War.
The United States purchased the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917.
Following the war, many islands were entrusted to the U.S. by the United Nations, and while the Northern Mariana Islands became a U.S. territory, the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau emerged from the trust territory as independent nations.
The last major international change was the acquisition in 1904, and return to Panama in 1979, of the Panama Canal Zone, an unincorporated US territory which controlled the Panama Canal. The final transfer of formal control over the region to Panama was completed in 1999.
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But we need it! For our security!
Substitute ‘Ukraine’ for ‘Greenland’ and what do you got?
But it’s not yours.
Also, there are no penguin in Greenland.
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Trump operates on the idea that everything can be bought for a price. He has been convinced that there is huge value in the ground in Greenland. The saber rattling is to unnerve the Danes into a sale. The problem is the permanent residents of Greenland are okay with things as they are. So be it. Historically there has been interest in acquiring Greenland but Truman settled for rights to a military presence. Since the War between the States there has been interest off and on. Trump is just more arrogant and blatantly belligerent in his attempts.
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