PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – Why Greenland and the broader Arctic have had the Pentagon’s growing attention for years. President-elect Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S. must take possession of Greenland cast a spotlight upon U.S. military operations on the landmass.
Greenland is the world’s largest island and an autonomous Danish dependent territory with self-government and its own parliament.
Because the sparsely populated island straddles the Arctic circle between the U.S., Russia and Europe, Greenland is a geopolitical prize that the U.S. and others have eyed for more than 150 years.
It is a barely defended northern expressway to attack the U.S.
It’s even more valuable as the Arctic opens up more to shipping and trade. And both Russia and China are aggressively trying to claim a stake there. China and Russia need to be countered in the Arctic, and neither Denmark, nor Canada has the will or resources to do it.
It also boasts vast, untapped oil, gas and rare earth mineral reserves. However, it can’t exploit them because the island is relatively poor, relying heavily on fishing and annual subsidies from tiny Denmark, which cover roughly half of its public budget.
Unfortunately for Scholz, Greenland isn’t a country but an autonomous Danish dependent territory.
US ACQUIRING GREENLAND WOULD BE A WIN-WIN FOR BOTH.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense stories ending the week from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.
Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEFING – the PDB:
NATIONAL SECURITY
Special ops forces seek to manage digital footprints, achieve ‘security through obscurity’ on “hyper-transparent battlefields”. Our adversaries are acquiring intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that will make it easier to locate US troops.
HOMELAND SECURITY
“APOCALYPTIC” WILDFIRES – California fires: Hollywood Hills burn as LA engulfed by ‘the big one‘.
POLITICS
FAILED ONE-TERM PRESIDENT AND HORRIBLE EX-PRESIDENT – ‘Devoted his life to service and sacrifice’: American public says goodbye as Carter lies in state at Capitol.
Trump’s team has met with Pentagon personnel in 100-plus transition meetings, so far.
US POWER OVERSEAS
New threats pushing Air Force and Army to rethink approach to worldwide base defense. Plans will prioritize collaboration across all the services, not just with the Army for protection.
IRAN THREAT/ISRAEL WARS
Iran was ‘defeated very badly’ in Syria, a top Iranian general admits. For weeks, Iranian officials have downplayed the fall of their ally in Syria. But an important general has offered a remarkably candid view of the blow to Iran.
Biden will defer to Trump on terror label for Syria’s Islamist leaders. He has decided to maintain the terrorist designation on Syria’s new Islamist rulers for the remainder of his tenure.
US forces take out two underground Houthi weapons hubs in Yemen.
Israeli Hostage, Youssef Ziyadne, an Arab Bedouin, is found dead in Gaza tunnel. He was seized by Hamas terrorists along with his three grown children on Oct. 7, 2023.
CHINA THREAT
Lack of hardened aircraft shelters in the Indo-Pacific region leaves US airbases vulnerable to China.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
Nearly a third of North Korean troops in Russia are already casualties. Of the 12,000 North Korean troops deployed to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at least 3,800 have been killed or wounded, says Zelenskyy.
Ukrainians determined to resist Russian aggression but tired of war. No one, however, spoke of ending the fight, exhaustion, or permanent cessation of land to Russia. Left unsaid was that the West could risk resentment if it pressed Ukraine into a negotiation likely to fail.
US MILITARY
Despite its troubled development, the Navy’s littoral combat ship is vital. The Navy is winding down construction of its LCS fleet with the recent commissioning of Beloit, and just the Cleveland and LCS-2 variant Pierre are left to complete.
END of PDB
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Don’t know where you folks are from but most of us in the US still use miles and acres
If anything like that “IDEA OF TAKING PANAMA WITH MILITARY FORCE” became real policy, it would be bad!
AND WORSE EVEN WITH THE SAME IN GREENLAND:
ATTACKING ONE NATO COUNTRY (Denmark) WOULD FORCE ALL NATO MEMBER COUNTRIES TO DECLARE WAR AGAINST THE ATTACKER!
– that would be disaster!
IT WOULD -BY NATO RULES- MEAN WAR INSIDE NATO
– POSSIBLY ITS DISSOLUTION!
Please use English instead of Metric in diagrams and maps. Thank you.