From: tsm@fastmail.ca   
      
   On Jan 6, 2026 at 2:22:20 PM EST, "Wilson"  wrote:   
      
   > On 1/6/2026 1:36 PM, Tara wrote:   
   >> On Jan 6, 2026 at 1:21:59 PM EST, "Julian"  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> It was the Viking, Eric the Red who, in AD 986, first saw Greenland’s   
   >>> potential. He wanted to colonise his newly-discovered island, and in a   
   >>> blatant piece of tenth-century spin-doctoring hit on a wizard wheeze to   
   >>> encourage other Norse people to come to this bleak, icy and remote   
   >>> corner of the unknown world:   
   >>>   
   >>> ‘In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found, which   
   >>> he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it   
   >>> had a favourable name.‘   
   >>>   
   >>> More than a thousand years later, US president Donald Trump is proposing   
   >>> something similar.   
   >>>   
   >>> ‘It’s a large real estate deal. Owning Greenland is vital for US   
   >>> security… and economic security… It’s an absolute necessity and I   
   cannot   
   >>> assure you that we would not use military or economic coercion.‘   
   >>>   
   >>> That may sound outlandish. But Trump’s ambition isn’t new. America has   
   >>> controlled Greenland before: during the Second World War, it became a de   
   >>> facto US protectorate. The US has also previously sought to buy   
   >>> Greenland; in 1946, it offered $100 million in gold bullion; around $7   
   >>> billion in today’s money.   
   >>>   
   >>> For now, Greenland belongs to Denmark. But Denmark’s ownership of   
   >>> Greenland is itself a piece of bare-faced colonialism, as a glance at   
   >>> their policy of forced assimilation in the 1940s and 50s makes clear. As   
   >>> a result, the Danes are much resented by most Greenlanders.   
   >>>   
   >>> Greenland has been moving towards independence almost as long as it has   
   >>> been a colony of Denmark. They were granted Home Rule in 1979. This was   
   >>> expanded to full self-rule with the 2009 Self-Government Act –   
   >>> legislation that also handed Greenland the right to declare   
   >>> independence. Today, Denmark retains control only of defence, foreign   
   >>> affairs, and monetary policy. The 2023 Greenlandic constitution   
   >>> explicitly commits the island to independence; and in his 2025 New Year   
   >>> speech, Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, called for an end to   
   >>> ‘the shackles of colonialism’ and a future shaped by Greenlanders   
   >>> themselves.   
   >>>   
   >>> The final umbilical cord linking Greenland to Denmark is the annual   
   >>> block grant of 3.9 billion kroner (roughly £410 million), making up   
   >>> about 19 per cent of Greenland’s GDP. But to put that in perspective, it   
   >>> is less than the amount annually spent by the US on the city of El Paso,   
   >>> Texas. And it is minuscule compared to the mineral wealth Greenland   
   >>> could one day command in partnership with a deep-pocketed ally, of whom   
   >>> there are at least three: America, China and Russia.   
   >>>   
   >>> China, in particular, has shown intense interest. At one point, Beijing   
   >>> proposed a $2.5 billion (£1.8 billion) investment in a Greenlandic mine   
   >>> (more than the island’s entire GDP), which would have brought in 5,000   
   >>> Chinese workers. Then they proposed massive infrastructure investments,   
   >>> including a deep-sea port and two international airports. These would   
   >>> require capital which would leave Greenland beholden for all time.   
   >>> Denmark and the US, unsurprisingly, blocked these plans.   
   >>>   
   >>> So why are the great powers so keen to own Greenland? Natural resources   
   >>> are a big reason why. The great powers’ unashamed lust for Greenland’s   
   >>> rare earths is but one element of a global race to control the   
   >>> production of the strategic minerals which are essential components of   
   >>> batteries, phones, electric vehicles and all modern computing devices.   
   >>> It’s about silicon, germanium, phosphorus, boron, indium phosphide,   
   >>> gallium, graphite, uranium, copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel, among   
   >>> others. He who controls their production holds the key to the digital   
   globe.   
   >>>   
   >>> Odd as it may sound, it’s also about Taiwan. Taiwan manufactures over 60   
   >>> per cent of the world’s semiconductors and more than 90 per cent of its   
   >>> most advanced chips. If China were ever to carry out its threat to   
   >>> invade Taiwan (which some observers think may be imminent, perhaps   
   >>> encouraged by Donald Trump’s daring raid on Venezuela), it would gain   
   >>> near-total control of the global microchip supply. Do we really want to   
   >>> be dependent on China for every phone, computer and electric vehicle   
   >>> produced in the West?   
   >>>   
   >>> The US needs to develop chip-making capabilities comparable to Taiwan’s.   
   >>> To achieve this it needs reliable sources for the 50 or so critical   
   >>> minerals required. And Greenland holds concentrated quantities of 30 of   
   >>> them, amounting to a considerable chunk of the world’s total rare earth   
   >>> reserves. But the reality is that with a population of just 57,000 –   
   >>> many of them Inuit fishermen and hunters – Greenland lacks the   
   >>> industrial infrastructure to extract these minerals. Both China and the   
   >>> US would be keen to fill that gap.   
   >>>   
   >>> Another great attraction of Greenland is its strategic position. As the   
   >>> ice melts – at a rate of as much as 270 billion tonnes per year –   
   >>> several strategic sea routes are being opened up. The world is waking up   
   >>> to the potential strategic value of Greenland, the largest   
   >>> non-continental island on Earth. Greenland controls the top end of the   
   >>> Greenland–Iceland–UK Gap. This area is crucial to Nato submarine   
   >>> surveillance and was vital in resupplying Europe during WWII. It also   
   >>> hosts the Thule Air Base (now renamed Pituffik Space Base), an essential   
   >>> part of US air defence and missile early warning systems. Any Russian   
   >>> missile strike on the US would pass directly over Greenland. Since 2017,   
   >>> Thule has housed a key ballistic missile detection system, with nearly   
   >>> $4 billion (£3 billion) in upgrades recently approved.   
   >>>   
   >>> The increasingly ice-free Northwest Passage skirts Greenland’s shores.   
   >>> There’s even talk of a deep-sea port to serve the emerging Northern Sea   
   >>> Route or NorthEast passage), either in Iceland or – just possibly – in   
   >>> East Greenland. In 2019, Mike Pompeo called Arctic sea-lanes the   
   >>> ’21st-century Suez and Panama Canals.’ If the US controlled Greenland,   
   >>> it would control access to these routes as well.   
   >>>   
   >>> So yes: Greenland’s strategic value to the US is unambiguous, and   
   >>> Washington is determined to keep rivals at bay. In October 2024, the US   
      
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