COLUMNIST: The Greenland alarm is sounding—Europe needs to hear it
Denmark was worried about U.S. intentions toward Greenland even before Donald Trump sent his troops and bombers into Venezuela over the weekend, but now the Danes are truly alarmed--and so they should be. Even if its vast island territory isn't the next item on the U.S. president's acquisition list (which surely features Colombia), he seems determined to take it before leaving office.
The reasons for Denmark's concern go beyond even Trump's repeated demands to hand the island over, made all the more real just before Christmas by the appointment of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as his special envoy for making it happen. Landry stated clearly that he had volunteered "to make Greenland part of the United States."
The problem for Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is the same as for Europe writ large: They have few cards to play in the world of might-makes-right that Trump is ushering in. They built their entire economic and security postures around the rules and alliance-based order that the U.S. created for its friends after World War II. Now they're too dependent on U.S. arms to resist as he tears it down, with a strong assist from the likes of Vladimir Putin.
Frederiksen........
