Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland • Hacker News Board

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#631

Post by closewith » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 1:14 PM UTC

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #609

closewith wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking about economic warfare? Too many EU nations are completely dependent on the US economically and it only takes one veto. The reality would be lots of denunciations, some token measures, followed by Business As Usual. Ireland, Poland, Germany, Spain aren't sacrificing their entire economies for Greenland.

Speaking as an Irish citizen id be ok with messing up the US at the cost of our economy. I think that you underestimate the resolve of Europeans on this. It's profoundly depressing, but such is the world we live in now.

You're obviously entitled to your opinion, but if you think it generalises, you're simply wrong. There is extremely strong and consistent polling across the EU in general, and Ireland in particular, showing that while the public supports Ukraine and moderate defence spending, it does not support direct military involvement or major escalation, and has zero tolerance for armed conflict, severe economic self-harm, or escalation against major powers.

In Ireland specifically, the cost of living is the key political issue at this time for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Neither has any mandate or capacity for military or economic conflict with the United States - our recent diplomatic efforts, in spite of the Greenland and Iranian crises, should highlight that.

Ireland is more dependent than ever before on the US. We would veto any EU efforts against them.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#632

Post by kannanvijayan » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 1:45 PM UTC

philipallstar wrote: post #620

kannanvijayan wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a simplistic take, given that slavery in pratice still exists and we just decide not to call it slavery due to technical loopholes. The countries most closely associated with the global economic oil supply for example, are largely run on slave labour. "The west" is no longer a well defined thing. America is its own thing now, and I don't think it fits in with any traditional notion of "The West" anymo…

Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. The west includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Not just Europe. But when I'm talking about is hundreds of years ago. History goes back more than a few months.

I mentioned Canada in my comments, but only out of vanity as I'm a Canadian. Really when most people talk about "the west" what they have in their mind's eye is US and Europe. The other countries are largely considered lesser auxiliaries, including mine (although Canada has had a higher prominence in recent years).

What I don't understand is what analytical value the term "the west" holds anymore, OUTSIDE of that historical artifact. What meaningful statement can you make about "the west" as you define it these days?

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#633

Post by JeremyNT » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 1:53 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #564

keybored wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a different topic. This is about how America acts towards the world, historically the so-called second and third world but now apparently to potentially everyone.

They're related, though. Most other hegemons sought absolute domination and a weakening (and impoverishment) of everyone else. The US was generally confident in its security and prosperity that it allowed others to become prosperous, too.

Yes this is I think the key thing... the "rising tide raises all boats" strategy. The deal was, if you play by the US rules and let their corporations in, they'll leave you alone or even give you back something useful in return.

Now the rug pull... you've been operating this way for the last 50 years, and suddenly the US is out to extract as much from you as possible no matter how close an ally you are or how friendly to their corporations you are.

I'm tired of the both-sidesing that I see on places like HN to justify the current administration's actions. The US historically didn't shake every country down (even allies!) under the implicit threat of its military might, because global stability and prosperity was good for US business interests.

It did try to overturn unfriendly regimes but it was far less brazen and reckless about this, operating over longer timelines, and the instability caused by those disastrous interventions seemed like it was a lesson learned (but now has clearly been forgotten).

This shit is terrifying.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#634

Post by fifticon » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 2:09 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #20

crispyambulance wrote: post #13

There's a difference between "posturing" for show and actually "preparing for war". They're wise to the fact that "the Stable Genius" isn't going to try anything violent with Denmark/Greenland, but they still want to prevent him thinking about just stealing territory "peacefully."

Trust me, Denmark wasn't posturing. The assumption was - and still is - that the USA wasn't posturing either. We (and I realize I obviously don't speak for all of Europe but I have my finger on the pulse in many places here) are also not assuming that when Trump is gone the USA will go back to normal.

They will not go back to anything resembling the old normal :-/. Trump & his cronies have obliterated the Overton Window so hard you cannot even tell which side of the house the window used to be in. The successors for Trump will be worse, because they will not be senile old men who sabotage themselves, and the checks-and-balances against this millenia-old crap have now been pretty well dismantled :-/. We are entering an age where US will behave like a weird sort of Russia#2, run by oligarchs. In a way it was of course always run (or influenced) by oligarchs, but nothing like the scale we are going to see from now on. But.. look at the history of US, the last hundred or so years, and how they behaved south of Mexico (I am not particularly calling out US here, of course Europe has also been bad).

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#635

Post by vrganj » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 3:30 PM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #611

vrganj wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your attitude reminds me of this old meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-are-you-gonna-do-stab-me

So explain yourself instead of using memes.

I thought it was obvious, but let me explicitly spell it out for you:

You speak with an unfounded arrogance that will earn you a bloodied nose if you don't course correct.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#636

Post by disgruntledphd2 » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 3:43 PM UTC

closewith wrote: post #631

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as an Irish citizen id be ok with messing up the US at the cost of our economy. I think that you underestimate the resolve of Europeans on this. It's profoundly depressing, but such is the world we live in now.

You're obviously entitled to your opinion, but if you think it generalises, you're simply wrong. There is extremely strong and consistent polling across the EU in general, and Ireland in particular, showing that while the public supports Ukraine and moderate defence spending, it does not support direct military involvement or major escalation, and has zero tolerance for armed conflict, severe economic self-harm, or e…

> Ireland is more dependent than ever before on the US. We would veto any EU efforts against them.

Unlikely. We'd most likely hum and haw for a while and then go along with it.

Like ultimately, we need both EU membership and US investment to maintain the economy we have at the moment. Losing one or the other would be really bad, but ultimately the only one we can really control is EU membership, and I'm relatively certain that the majority of Irish people, if forced to (and not one second before) would choose the EU.

> There is extremely strong and consistent polling across the EU in general, and Ireland in particular, showing that while the public supports Ukraine and moderate defence spending, it does not support direct military involvement or major escalation, and has zero tolerance for armed conflict, severe economic self-harm, or escalation against major powers.

Can you point to this polling please? I'm definitely not in favour of more wars, but the issue is that the choice may not be up to you or me, rather it will be driven by countries starting said wars (cough cough US threatening to invade Greenland).

> In Ireland specifically, the cost of living is the key political issue at this time for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Neither has any mandate or capacity for military or economic conflict with the United States - our recent diplomatic efforts, in spite of the Greenland and Iranian crises, should highlight that.

While I do agree with your core point around cost of living, honestly, the likelihood of any political party in Ireland (but particularly FFG) doing anything about the cost of living is ludicrously small, depressingly.

The two biggest drivers of inflation in Ireland (and the west more generally) are energy costs and land costs. If you ran on reducing land costs you'd become a pariah in Ireland (again, really unfortunately).

And our planning system makes it unlikely (again, depressingly) that any work will be done on grid modernisation or building energy infrastructure. I mean, I would love to see this happen (I'd even vote for FG or the Shinners to accomplish this), but I find it extremely unlikely.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#637

Post by gdilla » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC

vrganj wrote: post #143

> As a source puts it, the French said: "Would you like more soldiers? You could have them. Would you like more naval support? You could have that. Would you like more air support? You could have that too." Thank God for the French. I long thought their strong Gaullist stance on sovereignty was a bit silly in today's world, but turns out they were right along. Europe can't trust any outside powers. Any external depen…

French is a lot more American in terms of doing the right thing than the Americans like to think they are (or really, propagandize they are).

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#638

Post by polothesecond » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

ifwinterco wrote: post #433

jacquesm wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this is very funny if you take into account how the United States originated.

What's going on right now makes a lot more sense when you consider that what's now the US was populated not so much by people of English descent, but specifically super religious Protestants who were often causing trouble. Part of the solution to Europe's wars of religion was to pack off some of the most swivel-eyed ones to the new world to let them build their New Jerusalem there, and it worked for a bit

Even as an American reading some diaries of English colonists provided a lot of insight into the culture to this day.

I remember one where a man decided to move to America to escape religious persecution. Of course said religious persecution was his neighbors laughing and dancing and enjoying themselves.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#639

Post by mcv » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 6:39 PM UTC

philipallstar wrote: post #610

mcv wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That ban on slavery is not being enforced on the rest of the world. The west had no problem playing football in Qatar in stadiums built by slave labour.

Well, not any more! This was hundreds of years ago. The British Empire isn't exactly around any more.

What was hundreds of years ago? Several western countries still allowed slavery well into the second half of the 19th century.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#640

Post by mcv » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 6:43 PM UTC

FpUser wrote: post #443

mcv wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe's weakness is mostly in their heads. The US is the most powerful military in the world, but the second most powerful military is NATO without the US. If the rest of NATO pulls together and reorganises into an effective military that doesn't depend on the US, it would be a force to be reckoned with. Europe could easily defeat Russia without outside help (look at how well Ukraine is doing with far less!), but we…

>"but the second most powerful military is NATO without the US" I am curious how much of NATO's hardware originate from the / depends on the US and and what will suddenly stop working if the US decides to break military alliance.

It's not like they will suddenly stop working completely, but some do depend on US data, which could be cut off. No idea if they have a fall back solution for that, but I'm sure they're working on that.