Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Tom Brenner
Topics: Donald Trump, Greenland, Politics, World News, Military
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Donald Trump, Greenland, Politics, World News, Military
People are concerned that World War 3 might break out if the US invades Greenland after Donald Trump reportedly told the military to get a plan ready.
Trump has had his eyes on Greenland since his first presidency and revived talks last year after being sworn into office for a second time.
The reason that the 79-year-old wants Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, is for national security purposes, and they need it 'right now'.
The island, located between North America and the Arctic, is well placed for early warning systems in the event of missile attacks.
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Some have called this reasoning into question; however, one being Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official during the Barack Obama administration who’s now research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Shapiro told POLITICO: "The President’s arguments about Greenland are self-evidently bullsh*t from top to bottom."
While there's been pushback from many countries that are part of NATO, Trump is believed to have told military generals to create a plan to invade Greenland.
As to how the military might try to take over Greenland, it's believed that they would 'focus on access, control, and logistics, and likely would not require an enormous US footprint, given the territory’s sparse population', says Harrison Kass, a senior defense and national security writer at The National Interest.
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Greenland would have to rely heavily on NATO for defense as the island, along with Denmark, is unlikely to have enough manpower to take on the US alone.
Should the US invade, it would likely 'destroy' its alliance with NATO, Kass went on, shortly after Trump demanded that NATO states pay five per cent more of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense by 2035.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul has echoed similar sentiments.
"For [Trump] to militarily invade would turn Article 5 of NATO on its very head and, in essence, press a war with NATO itself," McCaul said, as per ABC News. "It would end up abolishing NATO as we know it."
He added: "If we want to put more military in there, we can; we don't have to invade it. If he wants to buy it, that's fine. But I don't see a willing seller right now."
As tensions continue to rise, Matt Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, say he's 'working' with Trump to find a solution.
He penned on Twitter on January 18: "Spoke with @POTUS regarding the security situation in Greenland and the Arctic. We will continue working on this, and I look forward to seeing him in Davos later this week."