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Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

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Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#41

Post by scotchmi_st »

Geonode wrote: post #6

This is the top post this morning? The issue won't come to military action. But if it did, Denmark could exercise all they want, and it would still last about ten minutes. Not sure how this is relevant to anything.

Sure the US could para a few soldiers in and raise the flag, but then what? US equipment and training isn’t designed for a country where the average temperature is above freezing for only 3 months of the year. When it’s minus 30 Celsius, lubricants gum up, batteries die and you need ice-breaker ships to resupply forces (which the US doesn’t have many of). Denmark and the other Nordic countries do have equipment and training designed for those conditions, and they know the (vast) landscape well, since they train there.

Imagine Afghanistan but against a modern, professional army and with the weather trying to kill you.

Which isn’t to say that it would be impossible, but certainly it would cost more in terms of casualties and money than most Americans realise.

Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#42

Post by LastTrain »

Geonode wrote: post #6

This is the top post this morning? The issue won't come to military action. But if it did, Denmark could exercise all they want, and it would still last about ten minutes. Not sure how this is relevant to anything.

Seema like you don’t want to be bothered about the ugly side of what you voted for.

Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#43

Post by scotty79 »

amelius wrote: post #37
Steve16384 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, what do you think they should have done?

I suppose the answer would be "build a better army, 20 years ago".

Americans were very efficiently suppressing such ideas. They were never interested in Europe having effective army. They only wanted to sell equipment and partially support their bases with European money. When the school bully is your "friend" you don't exactly have the freedom to do what's best for you.

Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#44

Post by blargthorwars »

k__ wrote: post #21
flyinglizard wrote: post #5

Countries without a strong nuclear deterrence don't have a seat at the table in this new geopolitical era. Looking at you, Ukraine, Taiwan and (can't believe I'm saying this) Denmark.

Yeah, maybe this will make the case for converting France's arsenal to an EU arsenal.

This would be bad for the EU.

France has a first-strike doctrine. It's unique in the world, and it scares the shit out of everybody. An EU arsenal would be a typical retaliatory-strike doctrine.

Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#46

Post by blargthorwars »

scotchmi_st wrote: post #41
Geonode wrote: post #6

This is the top post this morning? The issue won't come to military action. But if it did, Denmark could exercise all they want, and it would still last about ten minutes. Not sure how this is relevant to anything.

Sure the US could para a few soldiers in and raise the flag, but then what? US equipment and training isn’t designed for a country where the average temperature is above freezing for only 3 months of the year. When it’s minus 30 Celsius, lubricants gum up, batteries die and you need ice-breaker ships to resupply forces (which the US doesn’t have many of). Denmark and the other Nordic countries do have equipment and t…

The US has a military base on Greenland now, and has had more in the past. We also have experience in Alaska and the South Pole.

The US understands cold.

Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#47

Post by scotty79 »

apples_oranges wrote: post #2

I wonder how likely Trumps assumption, that Russia or China will take it if he doesn't, is..

In modern world if you want to estimate validity of the message it's a better heuristic to consider the source than the message itself.

Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#48

Post by k__ »

blargthorwars wrote: post #44
k__ wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, maybe this will make the case for converting France's arsenal to an EU arsenal.

This would be bad for the EU. France has a first-strike doctrine. It's unique in the world, and it scares the shit out of everybody. An EU arsenal would be a typical retaliatory-strike doctrine.

The conversion could include a doctrine change.

Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#49

Post by scotchmi_st »

blargthorwars wrote: post #46
scotchmi_st wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure the US could para a few soldiers in and raise the flag, but then what? US equipment and training isn’t designed for a country where the average temperature is above freezing for only 3 months of the year. When it’s minus 30 Celsius, lubricants gum up, batteries die and you need ice-breaker ships to resupply forces (which the US doesn’t have many of). Denmark and the other Nordic countries do have equipment and t…

The US has a military base on Greenland now, and has had more in the past. We also have experience in Alaska and the South Pole. The US understands cold.

The military base there is small, and the number of troops trained in Alaska is also comparatively small. It also has little dedicated cold-weather gear, and logistical pipelines (especially if Canada refuses to let them in their airspace/waters) with be very hard to set up.

The US may have some understanding of the cold, but the nordic countries have far more, and are far better prepared.

Re: Danish Armed Forces expand their presence and continue exercises in Greenland

#50

Post by mcphage »

petcat wrote: post #19

I feel like this is all going to end up with Denmark agreeing to long-term resource share with USA where USA gets something like 85% in exchange for Denmark getting to keep the title. Nobody is going to war over this and Denmark/EU wants to save face.

> Nobody is going to war over this and Denmark/EU wants to save face.

I'm not so sure. Between all of Trump antics, and Russia's invasions, I think they're starting to realize that if you let the bully take the small things you don't especially care about, they're just going to demand bigger things.

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