Greenland Protests US 'Threats' – History Says Call it 'Business as Usual'
Al Jazeera's report from Greenland’s capital details thousands protesting alleged U.S. 'threats' to seize the territory, featuring outrage over former President Trump's 'offer' to buy the island. While commendable to highlight local voices, this framing overlooks a deep-seated pattern of U.S. expansionism that predates Trump by decades. The U.S. bought the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin
Islands) in 1917 for $25 million and has repeatedly explored acquiring Greenland since the 1860s, notably after WWII when President Truman offered $100 million. This isn't a 'Trump threat'; it’s a historically consistent, resource-driven strategic ambition often presented as geopolitical necessity. We're told to view Trump's 'offer' as an absurd, isolated incident, rather than the latest iteration
of a continuous strategic interest in the Arctic's resources and military value. When the Green Ice goes, who gets the prize? (It's not Greenlanders.) How many times does a colonial power have to *attempt* to acquire territory before it's labelled standard operating procedure, not just an 'alarming' threat?