[I had written the following before Trump, at least temporarily took the military option off the table along with the tariffs against European countries. First, I’m not convinced he won’t flip flop again. Second, I believe the damage of his threats to our allies has been done and won’t necessarily heal because he changed his mind. So, take what I have to say with that in mind.]
When a reporter asked Rockefeller, “How much money is enough?” he replied, “Just a little bit more.”
Hungry for prestige, power, and probably profit, our president is at it again. He’s jonesing to add more acreage to U.S. territory. After all, as a real estate tycoon, he knows the property development business pretty well. And as a self-professed deal maker, he knows how to acquire stuff by hook or crook––or threats when necessary. Trump the Conqueror has made it clear that he lusts to control the Western Hemisphere, not to mention a small frozen island in the far north.
He says that we have to take Greenland because we don’t want to be neighbors with Russia. (Do you happen to know the distance between Alaska and Russia? Look it up on a map. By any definition, we’re already neighbors.) He also says Denmark landing on Greenland in a boat 500 years ago doesn’t mean they own it. (Have you ever heard of a boat named the Mayflower?)
You say that he’s offering to buy it? Yes but the offer is being made at gunpoint. Yes, he walked back some of that rhetoric in Davos this week. But remember what White House press secretary said, “The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue” the island nation, but “the U.S. military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal.” Trump himself has said repeatedly that if we can’t get it “the easy way” then we’ll would resort to the “hard way.” “We are going to do something in Greenland, whether they like it or not!” Quite a deal-making method, wouldn’t you say?
Imagine you’re the biggest and toughest thug on the block. But when thugs from another block come en masse to take you on, you know you can’t beat them alone. You need allies / friends who have your back. Those friends may be smaller and not as tough as you, but still you need them. They’re called NATO.
“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
Though Trump doesn’t operate under Solomon’s counsel, the prime minister of Greenland gets it. He said “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the E.U.”
And how did Trump’s respond? “I disagree with him,” he said, “I don’t know who he is. Don’t know anything about him. But that’s going to be a big problem for him.” My first question is how can he not know who the prime minister of the country he threatens to invade or anything about him?! Is that what you’d call being master of the “art of the deal”?
Denmark has always been a great ally to our country. Years ago they granted us access to Greenland to strengthen our own defense. In 1951 they granted the United States the ability to “construct, install, maintain and operate” military bases across Greenland. We have permission to “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements and operation of ships, aircraft and waterborne craft.”
So what’s the problem here? Why does he have to own the island?
Your good friend offers you a place to stay anytime you’re in town. He’s got a room all set up for you and free access to the whole house and permission to treat it as though it were yours. It’s hospitality at its best. But you think it would be even better if it were yours to add to your large collection of houses? Doesn’t it say someplace that possession is nine tenths of the law? Is that the law of the jungle? So, you pull some hinky shenanigans to push him out of his home and take possession of it for yourself. (Reminiscent of a similar story in 1 Kings 21. Read it and weep.)
But isn’t that how the rich and powerful end to roll? They don’t like borrowing things. They prefer to own them and are sometimes willing to resort to bullying if necessary to get what they want. But he who dies with the most toys is…still dead.
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Jesus)
When asked whether there were any limits to his ability to use military force around the world, he said “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” Wait, what? His own morality? And were supposed trust that? Trump has the morality of a mob boss who goes to church on Sundays for show and commits crimes with impunity the rest of the week. Morality isn’t part of his makeup. A person born blind can’t explain the difference between red and blue. He simply doesn’t possess the capability to discern right from wrong. Trump’s version of morality has no boundaries against his will to power and greed.
Trump just raised our military budget to $1.5 trillion annually, an almost $600 billion increase. And that’s without purchasing or attacking Greenland! I thought I heard someplace that there are Americans going without health care, living in their cars, and are food insecure. And we need Greenland to add to our property portfolio so Trump’s legacy can be more impressive?
Only 17 percent of Americans support acquiring Greenland, and a mere 4 percent support taking it by force. Does that matter to Trump? It typically doesn’t. Since a child he has been accustomed to getting and doing what he wants when he wants it regardless of the consequences to others.
What do you think?
barney wiget 