'If the Bad Guys Start Shooting, it Comes Over Greenland' vs. Europe's Strategic Myopia
For decades, the world treated Greenland as a sentimental footnote in Arctic mythology rather than a linchpin in global security and modern technology. This was strategic negligence with real conseque
President Donald J. Trump saw what Europe could not, or perhaps would not: that Greenland is not a quaint curiosity; in the 21st century, it is an essential security asset and industrial necessity for the West.
Greenland is not a romantic artifact from some explorer’s diary. It is a geographic chokepoint with defense implications, a repository of minerals that will power future technologies, and a strategic fulcrum in the Arctic’s geopolitical contest. Trump’s focus on Greenland is not whimsy — it is realism.
History will remember this period not for what Europeans dreamed, but for what was accomplished by those who understood the stakes. In the Arctic, and beyond, Trump is right -- and Europe, once again, is too vain to learn.
Editorial opinion: Linda Goudsmit • Jan 23, 2026 at 07:29
All wars are won and lost via supply chains, whether the supplied materials are oil, food, clothing, rare earth minerals, or ballistic missiles. President Trump understands the strategic importance of Greenland in disrupting the supply chains of our enemies. He is using the same principle fighting the war on drugs and war on America, which, by the way, were never being fought to win by previous administrations. Blowing up drug boats, ending fraudulent USAID payments, withdrawing from UNESCO, and withdrawing from the WHO are all supply chain disruptions, and understanding the facts of supply chain realities are essential to winning wars.
This excellent article addresses the conflict between facts in objective reality and feelings in subjective reality, “Critics of Trump’s Greenland policy often frame it as brash or impractical. Viewed objectively, it is grounded in three hard realities: 1. Control of strategic geography matters in a multipolar world. 2. Critical minerals are national security assets. 3. Policies divorced from reality -- including the erosion of Western values by migrants, many of whom at best are conflicted about assimilating -- invite decline.”
In objective reality we are a world at war and President Trump is fighting to win. The ideological fault line in the President’s foreign policy is in ignoring some of the inconvenient facts of the red/green alliance. The red Communists believe it is their manifest destiny to have communism rule the world. So, why are we helping them by having Chinese pilots trained in the US and Chinese students educated in the US?? The green Islamists are doctrinally committed to establishing a worldwide Islamic caliphate, so why is Qatar being considered an essential ally that we are committed to protecting by executive order?? War is a long-range chess game, and these inconvenient facts will ultimately checkmate President Trump’s goals in a post-Trump world, and that is what our enemies are waiting for.
(Photo by Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)