Europe Now Sending Overwhelming Force of 34 to Defend Greenland

Europe is a continent with a long, long history of vast deployments of military force. From the Roman conquest of Britain to the War of the Holy League, up to the Great War and World War 2, that tired old continent has seen a lot of enormous armies gathered and thrown into battle.

So it should come as no surprise to learn that several of the ancient nations of Europe have gathered a mighty force to protect the Danish possession of Greenland from possible action by President Donald Trump. Earlier on Thursday, my colleague Mike Miller informed us that France's President Macron was already threatening to send a mighty force of French warriors to Greenland's defense.

Mike writes:

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that France would deploy "land, air, and sea assets" to Greenland, as President Donald Trump continues to mull the acquisition of the world's largest island, which is largely covered by ice and uninhabitable. As Trump correctly warns, both Russia and China have increasingly shown their respective interests in Greenland due to its strategic Arctic location.

Well, things are spiraling. Now it's not just France anymore. Germany and the United Kingdom (is anyone else bemused at the idea of the UK, France and Germany working together on a military matter?), as well as Sweden and Norway, are sending a mighty army to conduct training in an intense two-day exercise in Greenland.

How mighty? I'm glad you asked. Here are the numbers:

Troops from several European countries deployed to Greenland and are on the ground there Thursday for a quick two-day mission to bolster the territory’s defenses.
France, Germany, Sweden and Norway are participating in the exercise, Fox News has learned. Leaders say the mission is meant to demonstrate they can deploy military assets "quickly."
The development comes as the Trump administration is pushing to acquire the Danish territory. Germany deployed a reconnaissance team of 13 personnel, France sent 15 mountain specialists and Sweden, Norway and Britain sent three, two and one officers, respectively, according to Reuters.

Yup. 34 troops. We can only boggle at the mighty logistics train that must be necessary to feed, equip, and fuel a force like this.

Now, all kidding aside, this may well be a "train the trainer" exercise to familiarize these troops with operations in Arctic and sub-Arctic conditions. I've done this myself, in the infamous Army Winter Operations Course at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, a 3-week field problem where the temperatures never once rose above zero, and we slept under canvas the entire time. These numbers aren't out of line for such an exercise, and frankly, Europe may well want to brush up on its military members' ability to operate in the Arctic, an area of strategic importance.

The United States, and especially President Trump, aren't likely to be deterred by this modest, mostly symbolic deployment.

The Danish Ministry of Defense had something to say about the whole thing:

"The geopolitical tensions have spread to the Arctic. The Government of Greenland, and the Danish Ministry of Defense have therefore decided to continue the Danish Armed Forces’ increased exercise activity in Greenland, in close cooperation with NATO allies," the Danish Ministry of Defense said in a statement Wednesday.
"From today, there will be an expanded military presence in and around Greenland — in close cooperation with NATO allies. The purpose is to train the ability to operate under the unique Arctic conditions and to strengthen the alliance’s footprint in the Arctic, benefiting both European and transatlantic security," it added.

So, the ongoing discussion over Greenland has Denmark and the other NATO nations nervous, and they're dialing their own forces in. That's a good thing, although they should be much more nervous about Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping than Donald Trump.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

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