Trump’s Greenland threats echo dark moments of cold war alliances
Donald Trump’s echoing of Russia’s talking points in its war against Ukraine has long been a cause for alarm and dismay in the west.
Now an even more disturbing Kremlin precedent dating from the cold war is being evoked by the US president’s fixation on taking over Greenland – that of carrying out attacks on military allies.
The Soviet Union invaded its allied communist partners twice as it engaged in a long ideological and military standoff with the capitalist west, and openly asserted the right to intervene in the affairs of other allies if they deviated from policies dictated by Moscow.
Trump’s repeated assertion that the US “needs” Greenland for national security purposes and his refusal to rule out acquiring it by military force has set Washington on a collision course with Denmark, a Nato ally that has sovereignty over the autonomous, self-governing territory. Trump has said “it may be a choice” between taking control of Greenland and keeping Nato intact.

