A land where once a year in December Santa Claus or Father Christmas leaps on his sledge, saddles up his reindeer, and visits every child on the planet with presents. A great children’s story and one which inspires the imagination of millions of kids every year. In the real world, it is also a land which is home to various peoples, some city dwellers others, the Kalaallit or Inuit, the indigenous people of Greenland who live on the ice and are under threat from US President, Donald Trump. Not only are the likes of Trump, Musk and their cronies in the increasingly fascist White House along with their mates around the world from the mega rich capitalist class, through their activities. destroying the habitat of Greenland the Ice and, therefore, the homes of the indigenous peoples of Greenland, they are now threatening this semi-autonomous country whose head of state is the King of Denmark with military invasion. Trump claims, not overtly convincingly, that Greenland is vital to the “national security and international security” of the USA. For centuries Greenland has never been considered vital to “national security” by various US Presidents, including war-mongers like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush but now, all of a sudden, under this bloke, the country becomes vital to the “national security” of the USA. Why could that be, I wonder?
Perhaps the real reason this country is important to the US has fuck all to do with national security but more to do with the natural resources which lay beneath its soil and ice. It hosts a wealth of minerals which no doubt the USA have eyeballed for their own. This Hitlerite talk by the US President of “military intervention” to take Greenland is not too far removed from the language used by Adolf Hitler to justify his invasion of Poland in 1939. He claimed Poland was a “threat to German security”, even faking a Polish attack on German territory to justify his actions. Trump's talk of Greenland being an important feature in the security of the USA to justify him taking over the country is not a million miles away from the Nazi German Fuhrer's language. Trump claims he needs Greenland for the fictional reasons already pointed out and will do “whatever it takes” to get the country which sounds very much like the threat of occupation of the technically Danish territory? Denmark is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and so is Greenland as a Danish territory so too are the USA. This then raises the question: if Trump carries out his threat and invades Greenland will NATOs article five, the mutual defence clause, be triggered against another NATO country, the USA? Or, in pursuit of his ambitions, could Donald Trump pull the US out of the alliance thus giving hm a clear run to chase his ambitions of territorial expansion? Could this then lead to a smaller NATO – US confrontation? The possibilities of this maniacal, possibly deranged, man’s actions, should he go through with them, are far more dangerous and far reaching than the illegal actions of Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in the Ukraine.
A point of observation and that is, the northern part of Canada, another country Trump is threatening, lies within the Arctic Circle. The North Pole and, therefore the countries which fall within it, are rich with natural resources all useful to the USA. So, Trump's threats to Canada should come as no surprise when viewed in this context. If he can annex Greenland and make Canada the “fifty first state of America”, as Donald Trump regularly boasts will happen, then much of the Arctic will belong to the USA! unfortunately for Trump, Canada has a new Sheriff in town, Mark Carney, who has been elected the country's new Prime Minister. Carney is as shrewd on the subject of economics, perhaps more so, as Trump and he vows to fight in order his country maintains her independence. Canada, like Greenland, is also a NATO member one of the founding countries in 1949 so the dangers of Trump's talk should be self-evident!
Notably the outcry from the European Union has been in sharp contrast to those voiced when Putin’s tanks were massed on the border with Ukraine on the eve of his invasion of that country. What would the reaction of the EU be if the US invade Greenland, an EU member State as well as, via their part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO member? Would they make excuses for the actions of the US administration? What would the reaction to such a move by Trump in the so-called United Kingdom be? Would UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, make some pathetic explanation for Trump's actions in order to protect their self-perceived ‘special relationship’ with the United States? After all, every British Prime Minister, bar Harold Wilson in a rare show of defiance, have gone ‘belly up’ to the US. Nearly all UK foreign policy since 1945 has had the interests of the USA at its core! When Vladimir Putin ordered his tanks and troops over the Ukrainian border, despite assuring the world invasion was not his intentions, the troops were merely on “manoeuvres,” he told the world. This was a blatant lie as he only hours later invaded the sovereign country of Ukraine citing that country’s threat of joining NATO and the presence of a neo-Nazi presence there as his reasons. Both these excuses held a little water, if Ukraine were to join NATO it would pose a far larger threat to Russia’s security – response time for example – than and need for the US to occupy Greenland in defence of her national security as Trump claims. Up to date UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not called for a “coalition of the willing” (first coined by George W. Bush prior to his illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003) in defence of Greenland. Neither has he urged huge arms for the Danish territory to defend herself as is the case in Ukraine. So, where’s the difference between the activities of Putin and those promised by Trump? It could be argued at least Trump is not lying to the world as did Putin.
Donald Trump has also got his eyes on the mineral wealth in Ukraine, as has Putin, and has done a deal with the Ukrainian Government to secure some of this wealth. Two things could happen here. Firstly Trump and Putin could carve up Ukraine’s mineral wealth between them thus effectively making that country’s government irrelevant. Or, second, the two mighty nuclear powers could fall out and fight for this mineral wealth. The Russian Army have not proved too capable on the ground in the war with Ukraine. Then again, the US Army did not wrap themselves in glory during the Vietnam War or, more recently, in Afghanistan. In reality the ability of ground forces would be irrelevant in such a conflict, the nuclear arsenals would be the determining factor which Russia has the largest but the US the most modern. The sophistication of such weapons becomes of little relevance after the number of warheads pass the one hundred mark and both these countries surpass that number! Russia has around 5,700 nuclear warheads and the US approx. 3,700. This prospect of nuclear annihilation is pure supposition and may never come to pass. I’m merely looking at the possibilities of which there are many. This is a worst-case scenario which, let’s hope, never happens.
Perhaps the real reason this country is important to the US has fuck all to do with national security but more to do with the natural resources which lay beneath its soil and ice. It hosts a wealth of minerals which no doubt the USA have eyeballed for their own. This Hitlerite talk by the US President of “military intervention” to take Greenland is not too far removed from the language used by Adolf Hitler to justify his invasion of Poland in 1939. He claimed Poland was a “threat to German security”, even faking a Polish attack on German territory to justify his actions. Trump's talk of Greenland being an important feature in the security of the USA to justify him taking over the country is not a million miles away from the Nazi German Fuhrer's language. Trump claims he needs Greenland for the fictional reasons already pointed out and will do “whatever it takes” to get the country which sounds very much like the threat of occupation of the technically Danish territory? Denmark is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and so is Greenland as a Danish territory so too are the USA. This then raises the question: if Trump carries out his threat and invades Greenland will NATOs article five, the mutual defence clause, be triggered against another NATO country, the USA? Or, in pursuit of his ambitions, could Donald Trump pull the US out of the alliance thus giving hm a clear run to chase his ambitions of territorial expansion? Could this then lead to a smaller NATO – US confrontation? The possibilities of this maniacal, possibly deranged, man’s actions, should he go through with them, are far more dangerous and far reaching than the illegal actions of Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in the Ukraine.
A point of observation and that is, the northern part of Canada, another country Trump is threatening, lies within the Arctic Circle. The North Pole and, therefore the countries which fall within it, are rich with natural resources all useful to the USA. So, Trump's threats to Canada should come as no surprise when viewed in this context. If he can annex Greenland and make Canada the “fifty first state of America”, as Donald Trump regularly boasts will happen, then much of the Arctic will belong to the USA! unfortunately for Trump, Canada has a new Sheriff in town, Mark Carney, who has been elected the country's new Prime Minister. Carney is as shrewd on the subject of economics, perhaps more so, as Trump and he vows to fight in order his country maintains her independence. Canada, like Greenland, is also a NATO member one of the founding countries in 1949 so the dangers of Trump's talk should be self-evident!
Notably the outcry from the European Union has been in sharp contrast to those voiced when Putin’s tanks were massed on the border with Ukraine on the eve of his invasion of that country. What would the reaction of the EU be if the US invade Greenland, an EU member State as well as, via their part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO member? Would they make excuses for the actions of the US administration? What would the reaction to such a move by Trump in the so-called United Kingdom be? Would UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, make some pathetic explanation for Trump's actions in order to protect their self-perceived ‘special relationship’ with the United States? After all, every British Prime Minister, bar Harold Wilson in a rare show of defiance, have gone ‘belly up’ to the US. Nearly all UK foreign policy since 1945 has had the interests of the USA at its core! When Vladimir Putin ordered his tanks and troops over the Ukrainian border, despite assuring the world invasion was not his intentions, the troops were merely on “manoeuvres,” he told the world. This was a blatant lie as he only hours later invaded the sovereign country of Ukraine citing that country’s threat of joining NATO and the presence of a neo-Nazi presence there as his reasons. Both these excuses held a little water, if Ukraine were to join NATO it would pose a far larger threat to Russia’s security – response time for example – than and need for the US to occupy Greenland in defence of her national security as Trump claims. Up to date UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not called for a “coalition of the willing” (first coined by George W. Bush prior to his illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003) in defence of Greenland. Neither has he urged huge arms for the Danish territory to defend herself as is the case in Ukraine. So, where’s the difference between the activities of Putin and those promised by Trump? It could be argued at least Trump is not lying to the world as did Putin.
Donald Trump has also got his eyes on the mineral wealth in Ukraine, as has Putin, and has done a deal with the Ukrainian Government to secure some of this wealth. Two things could happen here. Firstly Trump and Putin could carve up Ukraine’s mineral wealth between them thus effectively making that country’s government irrelevant. Or, second, the two mighty nuclear powers could fall out and fight for this mineral wealth. The Russian Army have not proved too capable on the ground in the war with Ukraine. Then again, the US Army did not wrap themselves in glory during the Vietnam War or, more recently, in Afghanistan. In reality the ability of ground forces would be irrelevant in such a conflict, the nuclear arsenals would be the determining factor which Russia has the largest but the US the most modern. The sophistication of such weapons becomes of little relevance after the number of warheads pass the one hundred mark and both these countries surpass that number! Russia has around 5,700 nuclear warheads and the US approx. 3,700. This prospect of nuclear annihilation is pure supposition and may never come to pass. I’m merely looking at the possibilities of which there are many. This is a worst-case scenario which, let’s hope, never happens.
The problem with Trump and Putin is the pair of them are a few loaves short of a bakery making them both unstable! My guess is that Trump will take the lion’s share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth under his deal with President Zelenskyy with Putin taking some of the wealth situated in the eastern provinces which, as part of an ending to the war, he will keep as Russian territories. If Trump takes over Greenland (and possibly Canada) that will give the USA enormous mineral wealth which belongs to somebody else! To quote VI Lenin; “what happens when the thieves fall out?”
Vladimir Putin recently stated of Trump's threats regarding Greenland; “they should be taken seriously” which, of course, if Trump does invade Greenland will give Putin, in his eyes, justification for his invasion of Ukraine. At least he had albeit punitive reasons for invading Ukraine, Donald Trump outside his own enigmatic imagination does not even have those for invading the militarily weak Greenland! On Friday 28th March 2025 United States Vice President, J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha, visited Greenland at what was considered a provocative time. He was visiting a US military base in Greenland in what appears to be his ‘right’ to do. So why choose this sensitive time to exercise this ‘right’ with tensions high between the US, Greenland and Denmark? Was there an ulterior motive behind the Vice President's presence? Could it have been a prelude to a leading US politician in the Trump administration taking up residence as Governor of Greenland? It is true, J.D. Vance did ‘scale back’ his visit confining it mainly to the US base and not, as was planned, venturing out into the capital, Nuuk.
Just as the majority of Ukrainians, certainly from central Ukraine to the Polish border in the west, do not want to be governed by Moscow neither do upwards of 85% of Greenlanders wish to have anything to do with the USA. The east of Ukraine may be a little different with many Russian speakers living there, but do they wish to be governed by Putin? The United States have no more right to Greenland than do Russia to Ukraine. Putin’s supposed grievances with Ukraine particularly NATO membership could have been resolved without invasion. All the US had to say, and still do, is words to the effect of; ‘if Ukraine applies to join NATO, then such an application will be refused’. Up to now the USA decisions carry the day in the alliance irrespective of what the other member states say and a Ukrainian application to join, and refused by the US, would be no exception. Such a commitment from NATO would take Putin’s flimsy excuse for invasion of Ukraine away. Even British Conservative MP, Michael Gove, is on record as saying, when asked, if Ukraine applied to join NATO would he agree? He said, categorically on the Andrew Marr show, “no”.
If Trump gets his way, and there is no reason why he will not, he will control the natural resources of both the Ukraine and Greenland! Some of these resources can go into nuclear weapons and this madman in the White House could increase the US nuclear arsenal to match and overtake that of Russia. Again this leads us to the possibility of nuclear war eventually - once the “thieves fall out” - becoming a real possibility!
Vladimir Putin recently stated of Trump's threats regarding Greenland; “they should be taken seriously” which, of course, if Trump does invade Greenland will give Putin, in his eyes, justification for his invasion of Ukraine. At least he had albeit punitive reasons for invading Ukraine, Donald Trump outside his own enigmatic imagination does not even have those for invading the militarily weak Greenland! On Friday 28th March 2025 United States Vice President, J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha, visited Greenland at what was considered a provocative time. He was visiting a US military base in Greenland in what appears to be his ‘right’ to do. So why choose this sensitive time to exercise this ‘right’ with tensions high between the US, Greenland and Denmark? Was there an ulterior motive behind the Vice President's presence? Could it have been a prelude to a leading US politician in the Trump administration taking up residence as Governor of Greenland? It is true, J.D. Vance did ‘scale back’ his visit confining it mainly to the US base and not, as was planned, venturing out into the capital, Nuuk.
Just as the majority of Ukrainians, certainly from central Ukraine to the Polish border in the west, do not want to be governed by Moscow neither do upwards of 85% of Greenlanders wish to have anything to do with the USA. The east of Ukraine may be a little different with many Russian speakers living there, but do they wish to be governed by Putin? The United States have no more right to Greenland than do Russia to Ukraine. Putin’s supposed grievances with Ukraine particularly NATO membership could have been resolved without invasion. All the US had to say, and still do, is words to the effect of; ‘if Ukraine applies to join NATO, then such an application will be refused’. Up to now the USA decisions carry the day in the alliance irrespective of what the other member states say and a Ukrainian application to join, and refused by the US, would be no exception. Such a commitment from NATO would take Putin’s flimsy excuse for invasion of Ukraine away. Even British Conservative MP, Michael Gove, is on record as saying, when asked, if Ukraine applied to join NATO would he agree? He said, categorically on the Andrew Marr show, “no”.
If Trump gets his way, and there is no reason why he will not, he will control the natural resources of both the Ukraine and Greenland! Some of these resources can go into nuclear weapons and this madman in the White House could increase the US nuclear arsenal to match and overtake that of Russia. Again this leads us to the possibility of nuclear war eventually - once the “thieves fall out” - becoming a real possibility!
These two brigands, Putin and Trump, are dangerous men with their fingers on even greater perilous nuclear buttons. What really makes me sick is the way western politicians hypocritically placate Trump while, at the same time, try to anger Putin. They are both as bad as each other and both a danger to humanity. The reaction of the electorates, that is those who for some reason consider themselves intelligent enough to cast their votes of peoples across Europe and the UK, angers me greater. They appear to, without question, ape the morons they elect into government on behalf of their respective bourgeoisie or ruling classes. If the results of what could happen were not possibly so far reaching, I’d say to these electorates, you elected these fucking idiots, you live with the consequences. Perhaps this attitude is a little flippant and there are those within these electorates, Marxists and non-Marxists, who do care. They are a minority but nevertheless significant but I think we will need a lot more than their protests to change things for the better.
These world leaders, Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Zelenskyy and now Starmer to name but five among many need to be removed. To use an old Red Action cartoon caption at the time of former Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev’s funeral; ‘are you going to Brezhnev’s funeral? Yea, join Red Action and help bury all the worlds leaders’! A sentiment which should be endorsed today.
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
Yet you include Zelensky among the briogands. Warts and all, he is the president of a country being invaded.
ReplyDeletehe is president of a country being invaded but that hardly puts him above scrutiny or beyond criticism. We see a lot of flak from within the Ukrainian Left come his way because of his neoliberalism.
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