Danish ambassador posts ‘friendly reminder’ about defence ties after provocative MAGA post over territory
The US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, have renewed fears of an American takeover of Greenland, as members of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement gleefully set their sights on the Danish territory after the attack in South America.
Just hours after the US military operation in Venezuela, the rightwing podcaster Katie Miller – the wife of Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s powerful deputy chief of staff for policy – posted on X a map of Greenland draped in the stars and stripes with the caption: “SOON.”
The threat to annex the mineral-rich territory, which is part of the NATO alliance, drew immediate outrage from Danes.
The EU is not capable of defending Greenland from an American invasion. They lack the kind of expeditionary military needed to do it. The best they could do is send large quantities of weapons that could be used by insurgents against the invaders.
But really, there’s not much even that could do. Greenland has a population of 56,000, even if the EU was willing to arm an insurgency. The US has a population of 330,000,000. Insurgencies can pull off some real underdog miracles, but there’s a limit. Ukraine, despite being outnumbered, can resist Russia through wits and bravery. But this would be like Vatican City trying to resist the Russian military.
Hell, we imagine Greenland as this vast territory, one that would be as difficult to subjugate as Afghanistan. But look at how Greenland is actually populated. Greenland isn’t really a country in the traditional sense. It’s basically five small towns.. Seriously, five towns, with populations of 24,000, 11,000, 9,000, 6,000, and 6,000. Occupy those five towns and you now control 99% of Greenland’s population. The countryside is virtually empty except for some scattered mining camps. This isn’t a territory that can support a large rural insurgency like Vietnam or Afghanistan.
I feel like the only deterrent the USA respects is a full global nuclear war. If the US doesn’t respect sovereignty we might see a rise in nuclear armaments because it’s the only thing that’ll make them back down.