Sharing Some Special Voices About Trump and Vance's Verbal Attacks on Denmark
It's all about Greenland, of course.
As my close friends and family know, I have a longstanding connection to Denmark, having spent a formative teenage year there as an exchange student. I have probably spent at least a couple of additional years there in the aggregate through numerous visits over the years, and I have managed to maintain my fluency in Danish and connections with friends and my former host family … the latter of whom I simply call family at this point.
So while Denmark isn’t entirely the progressive, tolerant little land I fell in love with in the 1970s, it still holds a special place in my heart. And the way Donald Trump has set out to make Denmark an adversary, mostly by threatening to take over Greenland (which is actually an autonomous, self-governing territory of Denmark), really makes my blood boil.
Earlier this week, someone I first met in Denmark in 1976 wrote some pointed words in a public post on Facebook that I think is worth sharing here. As background, Niels Mikkelsen has had a distinguished international career, including stints as a researcher, scholar and university-level lecturer of human rights and international law, as well as a diplomat in the Danish foreign service.
Mikkelsen writes (lightly edited for clarity):
In Denmark we believe in each other and trust our politicians. We have an open society with access to almost all public administration. We have again this year been named as the least corrupt country in the world — and we always respect a clear agreement. For these reasons, the American stance which hurts me the most is that VP Vance continues to state that "Denmark is not a good ally".
Rufus Gifford, former ambassador to Denmark, confirms that Denmark has been a close ally to the US and lived up to all agreements with the US. Young Danes have given their lives next to Americans in a number of theaters — and many more are still suffering from their wounds as veterans from Denmark.
The US has since WW2 had full access to establish any military installation needed in Greenland — but their involvement has steadily decreased — also under the 45th President.
Yes, we have made mistakes in Greenland, but compared to present and former colonies of the US (like Cuba and Puerto Rico) Greenland is in my best belief better off. No-one would at a political meeting in Denmark refer to Greenland as a "garbage island" — NO-ONE !!!
Kalaallit Nunaat is today a well-functioning and respected nation — and an important part of our Nordic cooperation. It has friendly relations with Canada — and Americans have been welcomed in Greenland until now ...
But this week we may see a dramatic turn in US-Greenland relations — when an American delegation forces itself into the heart of that great island. I am afraid that the constant aggression from the Trump administration against Greenland and Denmark will NOT enhance security and peace in the Western Hemisphere. Quite the contrary.
Mikkelsen’s post was prompted in part by this video message from Rufus Gifford, the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark from August 2013 through January 2017, who wrote on his Instagram that he is “angry on behalf of our friends and allies who deserve so much better.”
Gifford says (lightly edited for clarity):
To say I’m a bit worked up this morning is an understatement. And that’s because of this: yesterday, the Vice President of the United States goes on Fox News and says that Denmark is not a very good ally.
Now I know that a lot of people would know how I feel about this. But I want to tell you why. And it is, in part, yes, because I was the one for a number of years that would go to the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister or the Defense Minister and ask on behalf of the United States government for them to send their young men and women to Iraq to fight ISIS, to help go remove chemical weapons from Syria, to go fight Ebola in Africa…. [E]very single time [I did this] they said yes, and they said yes without hesitation, and in part because it was the United States of America — a great ally — asking them to do it.
[F]or them to hear today that now the Vice President of the United States is saying that they are not a good ally, when they have lost more people per capita, young men and women, in Afghanistan, than any country other than the United States of America … it is just shameful.
I have been to these funerals. I’ve heard stories of young men who’ve had their legs blown off by IEDs in Afghanistan; of young men who’ve had to go through numerous surgeries, and now live in constant pain, because of something that happened to them on the battlefield.
For them, and their families, to now hear the Vice President talk like this is just heartbreaking.
And honestly, Americans, we have to show outrage to our European partners. This is shameful. [T]his is a moral shortcoming.
And honestly, look, we understand that the reason [Vance is] saying it is because [the Danes] are not bowing, bending the knee, to Trump’s authoritarian imperialistic takeover of Greenland. We get that. But at some point this is about something so much bigger. This is about the men and women … I hope that JD Vance could say this not just to the face of Maria Bartiromo, but go to Denmark and say that to the face of the parents of the young men and women who’ve lost their lives alongside U.S. troops. Say it to them. And then you will have just an ounce of courage …. but until then it is just shameful.
Americans, we need to show a little outrage here. Our partners and allies expect it from us. And they deserve better.
Both Mikkelsen and Gifford make clear that the U.S. couldn’t have a closer ally than Denmark. Moreover, the United States already has more access to Greenland than it uses. U.S. threats to take over Greenland stem, therefore, not from any strategic reality, but rather express America’s imperialistic designs under Trump 2.0
As I write this, a planned visit to Greenland by Vice President Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, is reportedly being scaled back. This is no surprise, in light of Greenland’s own Prime Minister, Mute B. Egede, calling the visit “highly aggressive.”
The real message here is that we Americans cannot stand by as the Trump regime dismantles the Western alliance piece by piece. America’s relationship with tiny Denmark is just one tiny piece of the whole and may not seem terribly important on its face. But the situation takes on special strategic importance and poses a unique danger because of the historic ties between Greenland and Denmark. I doubt that Denmark would be in Trump’s crosshairs otherwise.
Listen to Niels Mikkelsen. Listen to Rufus Gifford. They are unique voices with their own unique perspectives on this perilous situation.
Bending over backwards to make excuses for Putin while attempting to run roughshod over longstanding allies like Denmark and Canada boggles the mind. I know the U.S. has never had its hands clean, but boy have we done a heel turn this season.
I just spoke to a good friend who lives with his family in Greenland. I asked how the Inuit themselves feel these days and the answer was that they are very worried. No one could have foreseen how serious Trump was when he first flouted the idea that Greenland should belong to the US during his first term in office.
Now Trump is laying claim to Kalaallit Nunaat as Greenland is called in Inuit language in a much more serious, expansionist context with a cabinet that backs him up in demanding access to or ownership of places with strategic and geopolitical importance for the US. -And simultaneously Denmark is called a ‘bad ally’ by VP JD Vance when it’s easy to Google that Denmark proportionally is the country after the US whist the most troops during the war in Afghanistan.
If anything it seems to be pushing Greenland and Denmark closer as well as Denmark closer with their European allies of whom several have offered assistance with a reinforced arctic defense.
How hard the pushback has to be in order to hold off the Americans from taking over Greenland, no one knows yet, but the fact that some resistance isn’t futile was proven today, when Usha Vance instead of visiting a dogsled race and locals by herself, changed plans and is now coming with her husband, VP JD Vance to visit the former Thule Base which is (for them) safe, American territory.
To be continued.