Trump is definitely not all sizzle and no steak. With the Greenland deal, he has another major foreign-affairs victory that strengthens America.
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Don’t look now, but President Trump is putting some foreign policy victories (first Venezuela and now Greenland) on the board, as The Washington Times points out:
The agreement gives America military access to Greenland in perpetuity — that is, even if it one day achieves independence.
Today, America has a modest military presence in Greenland, which is likely to increase substantially under the deal and could include a naval base and an extension of the Golden Dome missile shield.
Greenland’s strategic importance cannot be overstated. Control of Greenland affects control of the Arctic. Whoever controls the Arctic will probably win a future world war. Greenland also controls vital shipping lanes.
Russia and China have increasingly focused on achieving military access to Greenland, which would be a blow to American national security. A tripartite agreement would also give the United States access to Greenland’s rich mineral deposits, which include estimated rare earth element reserves of up to 36 million metric tons, according to geological assessments compiled by the Atlantic Council.
The deal is a win all the way around. Denmark could never hope to defend the territory from a hostile takeover bid. Greenland is vital to America’s security interests, and Greenlanders need help extracting their valuable mineral reserves.
Win all the way around is right! The deal is that we have access to mineral deposits and the ability to monitor a key piece of real estate. In other words, China and Russia wanted to control this strategic real estate, and we will do it instead. That’s a victory for the U.S.
As the editorial points out, President Trump could have handled the communications a bit better. It sounded too much like gunboat diplomacy at first, but cooler heads prevailed, and the deal was made. Let’s give credit to Denmark’s leaders for recognizing their inability to defend Greenland and recognizing that partnering with the U.S. is the best way to do it.
So President Trump scored an oil deal with Venezuela and now a strategic military victory with Greenland. It sounds like winning to me. I like it.
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