US President Donald Trump’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3 has emboldened him to proceed with the annexation of Greenland, a Danish-owned, self-governed territory, spelling the effective end of NATO and furthering Russia’s war aims in Ukraine, experts tell Al Jazeera.

“The move on Venezuela illustrates the Trump administration’s determination to dominate the Western Hemisphere – of which Greenland geographically is a part,” said Anna Wieslander, Northern Europe director for the Atlantic Council, a think tank.

“If the United States decides to attack another NATO country, then everything would stop – that includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security,” Frederiksen said.

“The pandering to Trump has been an element of our strategy over the last year, leaving observers hoping, but not entirely trusting, that another element of the strategy is preparing urgently for the final rupture with the United States,” Giles said.

Giles told Al Jazeera that Europe’s best option was to place a military deterrent on Greenland now, believing that putting allied troops in the Baltic States and Poland after 2017 deterred a Russian attack there.

  • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    What experrs? American experts?

    They’re kind of forgetting the big elephant in the room that is the fact a lot of US foreign debt is owned by Japan and China, with the majority of the rest of it being held by countries that will be very very pissed off with this move.

    If trump is stupid enough to pull the trigger, and those countries decide that a potential physical war is becoming inevitable, they’ll for sure dump all of that debt, all at once; killing the US economy and it’s ability to make war. War needs fuel. Despite Venzuela, Trump won’t have enough of it once his economy tanks.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Yeah I think the ordering on that is China, Japan, UK, Canada in terms of the countries that hold US bonds.

      A diplomatic delegation came to Canada recently and then Mark Carney went to China. Maybe just coincidence, or maybe not.

      Tanking the bonds is essentially the economic equivalent of a nuke. You don’t want to use it because there will be fallout which isn’t good for anyone. But the US actually using military force on Greenland would be a circumstance where you might push the button on that. China has some business interests in Greenland, and generally the US just invading places based solely on the whims of a deranged old man is worse for everyone than the economic fallout from tanking the bonds.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      they’ll for sure dump all of that debt

      That is a gain for the US, not a loss. No interest payments on the loans they’ve made, and no need to pay off the principal. Great!

      • PixxlMan@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The debt doesn’t “go away”, the countries sell it on the market, causing the price of us bonds to drop. That causes the yield (what it costs the us to service the debt) to go up. Borrowing becomes more expensive. Repaying debt or borrowing more to pay interest becomes even more expensive for the us.

          • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            Dumping their bonds into the market isn’t cancelling their debt. Its making all that debt available for OTHERS to buy. Supply goes up, value goes down.

            In other words, if all of the US debt was out up for sale at the same time, is value of the US dollar would crater.

            • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Supply is the same unless debt is cancelled. A weaker dollar makes it easier to pay interest.

              "If you owe foreign banks $100, that’s your problem. If you owe foreign banks $100 trillion that’s the foreign bank’s problem.”

              • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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                2 months ago

                That’s not how markets work.

                But you’re clearly a troll just being intentionally obtuse for shits and giggles. It’s on me for not having realised it earlier.

                Have a good day.

                • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  If you think correcting someone’s macro economic misunderstandings is trolling then you will be meeting many more trolls.

                  • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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                    2 months ago

                    I’ll trust the economists on this one. Honestly should have just done this from the beginning rather than trying to explain things.

                    When foreign countries start selling off U.S. debt, the immediate impact is on bond prices. A surge in selling increases the supply of bonds on the market. Just like any other asset, when supply rises dramatically without a corresponding rise in demand, prices fall. And when bond prices fall, yields—another way of saying interest rates—go up.

                    source - https://www.investingdaily.com/137830/what-it-means-when-the-world-dumps-u-s-debt/

          • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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            2 months ago

            Not cancelling, selling.

            A dollar bill is debt that the govt owes to you. A bond is similar, just a bit different.

            The US will still owe, just to different entities, but its figurative credit score will plummet at the same time it’s in a debt spiral.

            But let’s make it simpler. Most of the world’s USD is not in the US, but in cash reserves abroad. They hold it like gold.

            What happens if the big players sell? It’s already happening a bit, look at EURUSD and gold prices.

            • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Yes. This is Trumps goal. Make foreign goods super expensive for consumers and manufacturers. Exactly what a Tariff does.

              They are isolationists. They don’t want debt held overseas.

              • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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                2 months ago

                This would make all goods more expensive, as it would directly devalue the USD. It wouldn’t make people buy local, it would just make them buy less.

                It’s not what a tariff does, because that only applies to foreign imports.

                  • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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                    2 months ago

                    Not really. If the USD loses value, your neighbour will sell their goods to me for EUR because it will be worth more.

                    It will be like everyone in the US got a pay cut. It’s a demand side effect, not like a tariff, and it’s uniform, not like a tariff.

                    It’s inflation after all.

    • edible_funk@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      What if I told you that was literally part of the plan? The groundwork for looking the USD was already in project 2025 and the dark enlightenment bullshit the tech feudalists masturbate to requires the balkanization of the US, and pulling a smash and grab on the USD will get us there within ten years. And if Trump makes it to next January they can kill him and we get ten years of “legitimate” Vance and by then it’s well and truly over.

    • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Money would be a problem but not the worst problem, all of manufacturing and materials come from China and the remaining single digit percent is in Europe, if the US pisses both they wont be able to manufacture war even if they haf all of the money