Don’t Nuke Nuuk!
Stand up to Trump and say, “Ich bin ein Danish!”
The soon-to-be President of the United States held court in his Florida mansion January 7, speaking to the media for a little more than an hour, and according to reports in two major newspapers he would not rule out using military force to bring Greenland and the Panama Canal under U.S. dominion.
It comes as no surprise that Mr. Trump is — again! — not thoughtful enough.
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Greenland, whose capital is Nuuk, is part of Denmark. Denmark is a member nation of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Yes, Greenland also is taking steps toward becoming an independent nation, and Denmark gives Greenland a pathway to do so through a referendum, but for the moment, Greenland is Danish.
Using U.S. military might to acquire Greenland would be an attack by the United States on a fellow NATO member, essentially holding Denmark at gunpoint. All other NATO members would be obliged to fight in Denmark’s and Greenland’s defense! They would be justified in considering the action an attack on their own sovereignties.
Any president of the United States, asked whether he would rule out military action to acquire Greenland, should be smart enough and thoughtful enough to say immediately, “Of course! We would never use our military to attack a fellow NATO member.” That might be followed by some diplomatic yadda yadda yadda about how Greenland is important to us, too. But the ruling out of military action would be immediate. Alas, Mr. Trump is not that smart or that thoughtful.
In his January 7 remarks, Trump also wouldn’t rule out using the U.S. military to gain complete control of the Panama Canal. The United States handed the government of Panama the proverbial keys to the Panama Canal in 1999, so Trump would be aiming our guns at Panama after a quarter of a century and saying “Nope! Give it back.”
Trump also repeated his desire to lean on Canada economically to get Canada to choose to become part of the United States. He didn’t threaten Ottawa with nukes, but he does think a battle of Benjamins vs. Loonies is fair.
That is how stupid our soon-to-be president is.
Students of history remember when U.S. President John Kennedy went to West Berlin in June 1963 to show his support for the people of West Berlin in particular and for West Germany more generally. Germany had been split after World War II into Soviet-controlled East Germany and an independent West Germany. The West German portion of Berlin was an island politically, completely encircled by East Germany. Kennedy told the crowd, “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’ ”
That was meant to tell them, “I am a Berlin resident, like you.” And Kennedy was close. If he had said, “Ich bin Berliner!” he’d have delivered his intended message more clearly. Alas, Kennedy went with “…ein Berliner” and that wee grammatical change meant his German-speaking crowd heard him claim to be a donut. Oops. They knew he meant well. In context, his assurance that Americans stood shoulder to shoulder with them against the looming Soviet bear was understood.
The world has given Kennedy a pass on the “I am a donut” hiccup.
No one should give Trump a pass on his rattling the U.S. military’s sabers about acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal, or convincing Canada to to trade its maple leaf for the 51st star in the Star Spangled Banner. He’s not defending democracies. He’s threatening them.
It’s time for all of us to say; “Ich bin ein Danish.” Or maybe just, “I stand with Denmark.”