“It could be. It’s possible. Anything’s possible.”
So said President Trump to Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo this week as she asked him about the possibility of the United States taking over Greenland.
The conversation took place over at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Trump and other world leaders were in attendance. (RELATED: Trump and Greenland: A NATO Test)
On cue, the Trump Derangement Syndrome crowd started to panic at the very idea.
But before we get to Greenland, a look back at the history of the physical United States should be noted for perspective.
I am old enough (ahem!) to recall when Alaska became the 49th American State. I was, however, not around when Secretary of State William Seward, a onetime Lincoln rival for the presidency who, after losing to old Abe, was graciously invited into the Lincoln Cabinet as Secretary of State. After Lincoln’s assassination, Seward stayed on in the administration of successor Andrew Johnson, and it was while in the post-Civil War Johnson administration that Seward, the wily forward-looking politician that he was, negotiated the U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia for a cool $7.2 million dollars in gold, which translated as 2 cents an acre. He was derided by critics who labeled Alaska as “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Icebox.” Nonetheless, the United States Senate approved the purchase by a vote of 37-2.
By 1959, Alaska was formally joined to the Union as the 49th State, paired with Hawaii coming in as the 50th.
After a lengthy period of derision as being worthless, now, “after 142 years as a U.S. possession and 50 years as a state, Alaska has produced resources worth (in today’s dollars) around $670 billion.”
Which is to say, “Seward’s Folly” turned out to be very much not a folly but a seriously bargain basement, considerable asset.
All this comes to mind as President Trump stands up for an official tie between Greenland and the U.S., not to become America’s 51st state but rather, as is seen from the ongoing talks, to tighten the relationship between the two countries for reasons of national security.
The hard fact of modern life and technology is that the proximity of Russia to Greenland, with China not far behind, makes for a potentially serious security problem for the Americans.
The New York Times headlines this as follows: “After Trump’s Ultimatum, Greenland Talks Include Sovereign U.S. Bases, No Drilling for Russia,” with the subtitle, “Negotiators have discussed proposals to check Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic and transfer sovereignty over pockets of Greenlandic land to the United States, an idea opposed by Denmark.”
In short, the concerns over blocking potentially hostile adversaries from mining the island’s minerals are real. Not to mention the ability to maintain American military bases there. Time has moved on, and 21st-century technology can play either a positive or negative role in a situation where Greenland comes so close to Russia and Russian technology.
As said, time moves on. I think only President Trump could have picked up on this potentially serious problem to America’s north and gone public with it.
As is frequently said in this corner?
Stay tuned.
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