Greenland=$Greenbacks$?

“There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.” — Winston Churchill

Greenland is mostly ice, while Iceland is mostly green. That is about the extent that most of us know about these two remote NATO islands until the late 20th Century Greenland discovery of 25 of the 34 critical raw metals.

Not that Greenland didn’t have strategic importance before. Four times the US had discussions with Denmark, Greenland’s mother country, as far back as 1867 regarding its purchase. The US, invoking The Monroe Doctrine, occupied Greenland in World War II and still has Pituffic Space Base on the island of 57,000 inhabitants.

Greenland now has little strategic importance in spite of Trump’s national security blather to the contrary. China possesses 60% of known rare earth metals and processes 90% of it, both far and away the most in the world.

Greenland has only two active mines. Very remote, no interior roads, extremely cold, the world’s largest island is a much greater challenge to national prospectors than the ‘49’ers Gold Rush. Mining rare earth metals would be costly to keep pace with China.

Danish officials, keenly aware of Trump’s interest in Greenland, have said it is not for sale. Residents, mostly Inuit-Danish ancestry, have not indicated a desire for self-government from Denmark. They did recently express that 85% are opposed to any form of US annexation.

A far bigger issue is NATO. Both the US and Denmark are charter members of the 1949 military alliance, whose Article 5 clearly stipulates that “an attack on one is an attack on all.” Its success can best be described by the fact that there has not been a World War III. NATO now has 32 members, and they do not agree on all issues except that they must remain united to preserve world peace.

Trump’s reckless abandonment of protocol threatens the stability of the world. He claimed drugs over Venezuela when the real objective was their oil reserves. Now he uses national security as his excuse for threatening Greenland and their rare earth metals. His irresponsible actions could further weaken NATO and open doors for Russia and/or China to aggressively pursue military action detrimental to the Free World.

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”—Albert Einstein

ED ENGLER, Sebring, Fla.