WASHINGTON, DC

“REMEMBER WHEN THE big kid came over to you in the school yard and demanded your lunch money? You either handed it over, or you kicked him in the nuts and then danced on his head. There’s something about this Greenland standoff that reminds me of that. Trump hasn’t backed himself into a corner on this one, he’s run headfirst into the wall. I really can’t see NATO surviving it. The institution might for form’s sake, but it’s a zombie from here on in. And that’s the tragedy of all this. Now China and Russia know that the Americans are on their own. Hell, the Europeans might even help fight them. You could not make this up.”

The words of a former American general who does not wish to be named as all he has is his pension.

“I would compare this to Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, just when everything was hunky dory between the two dictatorships; but at least the German Fuhrer had the excuse that Bolshevism was his traditional enemy and that Stalin had been creeping westward since 1939. Trump’s excuse for Greenland – that Russia and China would take it – seems as crazy as saying Australia might take the Azores. Look where China is, Mr President. See where Russia is. Indeed, if Russia or China really wanted to, Alaska would be the point of impact. It’s right next to Russia, and, indeed, used to be Russian; and if the Chinese ever took Siberia from the Russians, they would be right next to it. I’m reminded of those futile struggles for Himalayan peaks that Pakistan and India periodically engage in, where the soldiers start bleeding in their lungs and their eyes freeze over, and for what? The damage being done now could take decades to repair, if ever. Even if the Danes hand Greenland over, another less-Trumpish American regime is quite likely to hand it back some day. Let’s just hope *TACO prevails.”

*Trump Always Chickens Out – ED