The Western alliance is broken beyond repair |
Why is no one stopping him? In grabbing at Greenland, President Donald Trump is endangering America, enfeebling the West, and imperiling the world. And all for what?
Is there a military rationale? On the contrary, for defense purposes, the United States has controlled Greenland for 85 years. The issue is not whether America gets to keep Greenland; it’s whether America gets to keep its allies.
Is there some ulterior game involving minerals? Again, no. Any U.S. mining company is more than welcome — the Danes, until a few days ago, wanted the largest possible U.S. presence — but the extraction costs have proved too high.
Is it, then, about domestic politics? Hardly. Trump, who was elected to halt overseas adventurism, has picked perhaps the only issue where his base will not follow him. A Quinnipiac University poll showed opposition to the use of force in Greenland running at 86% to 9%, while another by Ipsos had those figures as 71% and 4%, 4% coincidentally being the “lizardman constant,” the proportion of respondents in any poll who give insincere responses. In Greenland itself, hostility to U.S. annexation is polling at 86% to 6%. If neither........