What are the economic advantages of Greenland to the USA, or more specifically, to the industrial/military complex that Eisenhower warned about:
“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” the US president told The Atlantic magazine, adding that the Danish territory was “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships”.
He said officials in his administration would decide what happened to Greenland, which Mr Trump has claimed the US must annex for its security.
Greenland is almost entirely deserted except for a thin sliver of coastline to the south. That makes it ripe for plunder, and it seems every time the US adds territory we get something good out of it. From the Louisiana Purchase to the annexation of Mexico’s territories (now California, Arizona, etc). Even Hawaii gives us a forward base for power projection, not to mention Alaska with its enormous oil bonanza…
Greenland has rare earths, lots of potential for oil (both inland and shoreline) and more. Better, there’s almost no one to object. Denmark? Seriously? I would not be surprised that at the passing of those millions of dollars in “campaign contributions” some ol exec wandered up and whispered “Greenland” into an orange ear.
Is this the stuff that the USA has to buy from China?
Yes, seriously. They are NATO. They will object. Are we REALLY going to attack a NATO attached country? Now you know why Trump has tried, over and over again, to weaken Europe, to weaken NATO.
I don’t really think he cares. I don’t really think most of his advisors care. I’d argue that only some of those in Congress with an R next to their name would say something.
So yeah, different world.
I know the Roman Empire was built one territory at a time, I don’t know if there was internal dissent or not. I know how Adolph built his, and once he had a victory or two under his belt nobody internally objected. Stalin got most of his in one fell swoop at the end of WWII.
I would suppose most empires were built one brick at a time, so once you have the politics and momentum on your side, there’s no telling what can happen. Greenland would be an easy target. No defense, not much objection, blah blah blah. Is Europe going to go to war to stop us from taking it (in whatever sense that might mean)?
Also, the experts claim Greenland would be a great place for military bases to control Arctic trade routes and missile pathways, and access to subsea minerals under the ice.
Alaska to the West, Greenland to the East. Canada if they are willing?
N “we” would control a large part of the Arctic.
ralph
I’m going to say no. China has the ability to separate them from the raw mineral and purify them. That’s the difficult part. Requires investment and the ability to deal with waste streams. They are not so rare but always go to China for final processing.
A couple of old acquaintances from the White Mountains….Don Smith and Dennnis McAllister if I remember their names correctly…wanted to do something unusual and new, so they did a pretty sizable traverse across Greenland…it was many years ago. I met up with Dennis later in life in Kodiak, it was quite an excursion they had, good that they survived it. I have no idea if they ever wrote about it or not.