Many people were surprised and perplexed when US President Donald Trump mentioned making Greenland part of the United States. Based on Geo-Political reality, it __has__ to be this way.
A slew of people went to look at maps to see where Greenland is in relation to the USA, and the maps were the "Mercator projection" maps for children and journalists;
But Mercator projection maps which we all grew up with in school (and use to this day), are NOT a useful guide to where any countries or territories actually are in the real world we live in.
Greenland - As viewed from a proper polar projection map:
Why Greenland? Well because Moscow bases almost all of their strategic military assets on the Kola Peninsula next to Finland which is scribbled-over with hot-pink highlighter. This is where the Russian ICBM silos, submarine bases, and their strategic bombers are.
If you look at the flight path (ballistic or powered) from the Kola Peninsula to anywhere on the lower 48, -Situated between the two hot-pink lines, then everything goes over Greenland.
Greenland is the theater where any strategic exchange between Washington and Moscow is contested.
If you want to intercept a ballistic missile, the best point to do so is at the apogee, at the top of the flight path. The shortest route for an interceptor to get to an apogee is from directly below the apogee.
That’s where Greenland is.
So, without me stating what should happen here, this is **why** the Trump administration says they **need** Greenland for national security.
The other thing that is happening is that the Northern Passage through the Arctic is opening up, and soon there will be Chinese cargo ships sailing through the Arctic to Rotterdam. It’s faster than the Suez and the ships aren’t limited to Suez-max size, so China and EU trade is going to accelerate a lot.
This means Chinese submarines will also be venturing under the Arctic into the Northern Atlantic, IF THEY AREN’T ALREADY DOING SO.
Hence, the North East coast of Greenland serves not 1, but 2 critical strategic security objectives of US national security.
If this wasn’t clear to you, please understand that the Mercator global map projection is for children and journalists only. It is not a useful guide to where any countries or territories actually are in the real world that we live in.
No self respecting adult should be using Mercator for their worldview. Anyone saying “there must be some other secret reason for Trump being interested in Greenland” is a certified ignoramus.
All we do in Greenland now is early warning radar. With hypersonic missile there’s no such thing as ‘early warning’. We have to have sufficient firepower to take them down before they reach our land. We need to be building bases in Greenland - yesterday - for that.
