From: user7160@newsgrouper.org.invalid   
      
   On 1/6/26 6:53 PM, dart200 wrote:   
   > On 1/6/26 10:21 AM, 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 and Greenland issued a joint statement pledging deeper cooperation   
   >> on many of these critical issues. While an outright purchase may be   
   >> politically impossible, other options exist. These include a Compact   
      
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