Why Greenland? Donald Trump isn’t looking to capture Greenland from Denmark militarily, but he won’t rule out anything. Reporters keep asking him to rule out things; he won’t answer those questions and shouldn’t.
As Donald Trump said, he wants to protect Greenland as Russia and China move in. He also wants to make use of their many resources. At the least, he’d like a long lease. He undoubtedly would if he could buy it. It would be an outstanding purchase.
Who Owns Greenland?
Ben Shapiro did a deep dive into the claim on Greenland. Denmark’s claim is shaky at best.
“When he [Donald Trump] says it’s not clear what the historic sort of preserve of Denmark is in Greenland, he’s actually correct about this. So back in 1775, to give you the potted history of Greenland, Denmark and Norway declared Greenland a colony.
“Greenland was then formally transferred from Norway to Denmark by a treaty of 1814. Denmark started trying to colonize the island in the 1880s. But here is the thing: a huge chunk before the 1880s was actually discovered by, wait for it, Americans.
“It was American Charles Francis Hall who was the first to see Northwest Greenland during the Polaris expedition, which was from 1871 to 1873, and another explorer named Robert Peary actually claimed much of the North.
“The only reason that Denmark has any claim whatsoever to Greenland, as far as the United States is concerned, is because when the United States was interested in purchasing the Danish West Indies during World War One, Denmark required the country to recognize its claim over the whole island of Greenland.
Peary Wanted Greenland Purchased
“At the time, Peary, the explorer who discovered much of it and claimed much of it, opposed the US giving up the claim because he said, Hey, the Monroe Doctrine says no European interference in the Western Hemisphere. Instead, he suggested correctly that we should have purchased the island outright. And then, as it turns out, by the way, we basically had to do it anyway, in terms of defending the island, because, as you will recall, if you remember your world history, by the early 1940s, Denmark had been conquered by, wait for it, the Nazis.
“And so, once that happened, the United States basically had to defend Greenland as its own principality because it was the only known significant source of a material called cryolite and because German Germany was attempting to use the North Atlantic as a base during the war. During World War Two, the United States actually did apply the Monroe Doctrine on European colonies in the North Atlantic Ocean.
“By 1946, the joint chiefs of staff had listed Greenland and Iceland as essential international locations for American bases. In fact, when NATO was in its heyday, Greenland was seen as more important to both American and Canadian defense than some of the Western European countries. Because again, if you take a look at a map when you get up to the very, very north of Canada, which is hit the North American continent, it starts to get pretty close to territory that is controlled by Russia.
“In 1951, the Greenland in the United States signed a treaty that gave the United States exclusive jurisdiction over defense areas within Greenland. So again, there is a very, very solid case that the United States actually ought to buy Greenland.”
Bill O’Reilly explained in his message of the day yesterday why he thinks President Trump wants Greenland.
“It’s safe to say Greenland hasn’t received this much attention since Erik the Red spotted it and said: “hey, what’s that”?
“But now the modern-day Marauder, Donald Trump, has his eye on the tundra because lying below the permafrost is lots of oil and natural gas. In addition, other valuable minerals may be present, presenting a financial windfall to those who can harvest it.
“Greenland is not a country. It’s a territory administered by the Kingdom of Denmark since 1721. If it were a country, it would be the fifth largest on the planet. But only 56,000 folks live there because there’s nothing to do but make fun of polar bears.
“Denmark is run by King Frederik X, a descendant of Gorm the Old (not making this up) who presided in the tenth century. Fred looks like a man who could be reasoned with, so I believe President Trump can make a deal here. The Danes get a big piece of the energy harvest by giving the USA a 99-year lease to do the heavy lifting.
“Of course, to protect the investment, the American military would need to build a couple of bases. [We have bases there now]
“That would torque Putin off but blank him if he can’t take a geological joke. Outflanking the Russians is a huge plus for America.
“So that’s what the Greenland thing is all about. Copenhagen should definitely make the deal. Old Gorm would.”
It’s a great discussion to have. We can do it better than Gorm’s descendants. The US needs to kick Russia out.
We have bases in Greenland now. Russia and China are interested in their shipping lanes, and Denmark is doing nothing. Either the US is interested in it, or Russia and China are. Much of Greenland has not been explored. We should purchase it. Trump wants to protect the free world.
Greenlanders want their freedom from Denmark. If they get it, they will likely align with the US because they’d rather move to the US than Denmark.
There is something you can’t ignore about Donald Trump. He is right, even when you think he couldn’t be.
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