MICHAEL WALSH AMERICAN FREE PRESS When debating the issue of Greenland, remember this fact.

The world’s largest island was a fundamental part of Denmark. This was 400 years before the birth of the United States.

Greenland’s 56,000 inhabitants are Danish nationals. The citizens of the self-governing nation are members of the European Union.

Half the size of the European Union, the 2.16 million km territory is significantly larger than Alaska, which at 1.72 million km is the largest state in the United States.

In terms of laying claim to Greenland, U.S. President Donald Trump says everything is on the table, including force. It is a grandiose ambition but brings with it a myriad of seismic complications.

Any transition to U.S. control would shatter the contemporary political map of the world.

Thought-provokingly, such a land grab would end the rationale of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

For NATO, this means the worst possible start to the year. The prospect is a nightmare for NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The leading member of the Alliance might use force to annex part of another ally’s territory.

The North Atlantic Alliance, founded in 1949, rest on the principles of the United Nations Charter.

These principles ensure that international disputes are settled by peaceful means. They also dictate that the parties refrain from the threat or use of force. This must be consistent with the Charter in their international relations.

Notoriously skeptical and negative about the military alliance, Donald Trump considers the bloc to be well past its sell-by date.

The million-dollar question is crucial. What actions can Denmark or the European Union take?

These actions should discourage Donald Trump’s ambition to annex what is undisputedly European territory.

Is divorce the answer? The bloc’s former top diplomat, Josep Borrell, whose experience and influence remain considerable, comes straight to the point.

He says, “he doesn’t know what more Donald Trump needs to do. We need to understand that the United States and Europe are not the allies they once were.”

The bitter irony is that Vladimir Putin, Trump’s Russian counterpart, will have most to gain by the disbanding of NATO. Russia’s foremost provocateur will no longer exist.

Trump was prepared to unwind NATO. Synchronized with this, Vladimir Putin delivered the coup de grâce on the bloc. He proposed a binding non-aggression pact.

The Russian initiative amounts to a coup d’état. The timing of Putin’s offer to deny NATO its justification raises the question: Are Putin and Trump in covert complicity?

Reading between the lines, I suspect off-the-record empathy, if not collusion, between Trump and Putin.

Trump is a pragmatic business dealer, not like the political amateurs running the EU. He knows that American corporate access to Russia’s natural resources offers greater profitability.

This is better than a conflict of interest. The threat of American sanctions is likely a smoke screen.

Borrell also commented on Trump’s concern about Europe’s nuclear powers. France and the UK could one day have governments that are not friendly to Washington. 

“There are many people who don’t want to accept this reality. It is still assumed that the US is the EU’s main ally, but it no longer is,” the ex-diplomat added.

Using force to add Greenland to Trump’s budding empire might seem like a final option. This approach is a last resort. It is only applied when a compromise leading to capitulation is unavailable.

US President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, has reiterated a significant statement.

He asserted that Greenland should belong to the US. He called it Washington’s formal position. 

The senior aide is widely considered a key architect of Trump’s agenda. The aide claimed no country could prevent the US from annexing the Danish territory.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen asserted that a US invasion would be the end of NATO.

“Trump must be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland. If the United States attacks, everything stops,” she said.

Trump initially voiced his intent to acquire Greenland during his first term in office. He links absolute control of the resource-rich, strategically located island to national security.

He also connects it to competition with the Russian and Chinese navies.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added that using the military is “always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal.”

Hot words or hot air from the emasculated European bloc’s heads of state?

European NATO members released a statement on Tuesday backing Denmark and affirming Greenland as its autonomous territory.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stressed that no NATO member “should attack or threaten” another member. He added that an armed conflict between the US and Denmark would render the alliance pointless.

It would also leave Brussels ill-fated political entourage politically isolated, militarily and economically emasculated, and lacking a coherent foreign policy.

Use it or lose it, Donald Trump repeatedly insists that the US must control Greenland given its strategic location.

He has also stressed that Copenhagen cannot properly protect Greenland, citing Russian and Chinese naval activity in the area.

The European leaders’ statement says that NATO’s European allies see the Arctic region as a priority. They are “stepping up” to keep it “safe and to deter adversaries.”

Moscow has maintained it has never threatened anyone in the Arctic. 

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WITNESS TO HISTORY Mike Walsh. This illustrated, revelatory book was banned by all major book publishers. The book became the most widely read revisionist history of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It was also the most acclaimed.

Witness to History stands out among all the written source materials I have read concerning Adolf Hitler. It is the most compelling. It offers a realistic overview of the Third Reich. This realism stems from events being recounted by those who experienced them. ~ Marc Roland. https://barnesreview.org/product/witness-to-history-the-reich-legend-uncensored/