Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, France, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland to face a 10% tariff beginning February 1. Trump said tariffs will be in place until "a deal is reached" on Greenland. [...] Trump added that if no resolution is reached until June 1 this year, the tariffs will jump to 25%.
As I Swede, I must say this list of countries are the countries I love the most in Europe (well, I like the weather in Spain and Italy, but I mean politically).
I would like our countries to integrate more, maybe with a common army. In the Nordics we already have begun to integrate our Air Forces to a common Nordic Air Force. Why not extend that to UK, France, Netherlands and Germany? These countries together could form a quite powerful army, air force etc. that could safeguard Europe against external threats.
The Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto found the operation superfluous and ridiculous, calling it a joke, and urged that it be carried out under NATO coordination.
It's just that I also want that split (north vs south, sort of). The EU of today is dysfunctional, largely because of this immense cultural split.
Now I want to delay this split though. At the moment we need EU unity.
> At the same time we need to realize that the US actions are clearly meant to tear the EU apart.
Generally true with one small but very important correction - the US actions are clearly meant to bait the EU into breaking itself apart.
> It's just that I also want that split (north vs south, sort of).
You've been had. Trump is smarter than you, you've bitten his bait and you're hanging on his hook... and you were doing so well initially.
> The EU of today is dysfunctional, largely because of this immense cultural split.
There's no cultural split, there are only politicians on varying levels of corruption and the leading EU countries are in the center of it all. That's the problem that needs addressing.
> You guys are all really purist with your shade of white.
A lot of the nationalist theatrics you see in political space lead to inflaming the small differences between similar peoples and getting them at each other's throats. That was clearly seen in the run-up to the tragic war between Russia and Ukraine.
It's telling that I don't see any politician in the EU addressing that threat. You'd think EU politicians would know better given the long history of bloody intra-European wars.
P.S. I reformulated my previously downvoted comment in order to make it more precise and less stingy. That will also help me understand the reason for the explanation-less downvoting - is it the truth in the content or the blemishes in form that caused it.
> You guys are all really purist with your shade of white.
That's the major goal of all the theatrics you see in political space - to have very similar peoples get at each other's throats. It was wildly "successful" in provoking the idiotic war between Russia and Ukraine.
It's telling that I don't see any politician in the EU addressing that threat. You'd think EU politicians would know better given the long and bloody history of idiotic intra-European wars.
Willful misunderstanding of NATO. The US is committed to defend Greenland as it is now or if it’s theirs. So, I guess, they’ve left NATO just didn’t leave a forwarding address.
Time to tell the bully to do quaint anatomical actions with mobile baked goods.
These are most of the countries that sent military forces to Greenland during the past two days for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Arctic_Endurance. The US was also invited.