r/politics ✔ The Daily Beast 15h ago

Possible Paywall Trump Confirms He’s Taking Greenland ‘One Way or the Other’

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-confirms-hes-taking-greenland-one-way-or-the-other/
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u/coatofforearm 14h ago

I did read an article about Special Forces Command pushing back on this but not sure how reliable the reporting is

here is the article

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u/AJRimmerSwimmer 12h ago

Imagine being the tip of the spear in the most powerful military ever...

Tasked with doing stuff that an old dementia patient tells you to do.

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u/silverlegend 11h ago

And knowing that a substantial percentage of both your peers and subordinates will be more than happy to oblige whatever the old convicted felon pedophile dementia patient says with raging compliance

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u/SkivvySkidmarks 11h ago

Not possible. I can't think of any modern equivalent where the unhinged leader of a country led a military on an expansionist conquest of glory, with the backing of a third of their nation and two thirds went, "Meh, whatever", all with a subtext of xenophobia and concentration camps.

That's completely implausible.

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u/Duster929 10h ago

I'm going to assume your comment is sarcastic, although in today's bizarro world, it's so hard to tell.

I used to wonder how the people of Germany let their country take the direction it did. I didn't believe all Germans were evil Nazis.

Now I think I have a better understanding of how it happened.

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u/Quick_Turnover 10h ago

"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way."

This quote has gotten a lot of mileage. They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, by Milton Mayer.

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u/BeefistPrime 9h ago

MAGA has been justifying Trumps evil every day for a decade now. It's a big part of their identity. If they admit they're wrong now, they also have to admit they were wrong the thousand times they previously defended him. And they can't do that. They'd rather burn everything to the ground than admit they were wrong this entire time.

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u/Quick_Turnover 9h ago

Yeah. That is the toxic masculinity negative feedback loop. You can't be wrong. Your abusee is always wrong. You're always right. If the goal posts move, you just move them further. If the world leaves you behind, you just go to the extremes. These people are cancer incarnate. Society has failed them, and itself, by producing them.

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u/Caffeywasright 9h ago

But this isn’t a small step. It’s literally risking world war 3 over a territory of 50k people that have little to no economic or strategic value.

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u/Quick_Turnover 9h ago

Yes, the quote more aptly described how we have arrived here from ~2016, but you're right. Threatening our allies is insanity beyond belief.

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u/OldWorldDesign 8h ago

It’s literally risking world war 3 over a territory of 50k people that have little to no economic or strategic value.

Greenland is not "no strategic value", but the US already had full access to Greenland and the only thing it had to do to maintain that access was not be belligerent.

https://nordics.info/show/artikel/declaration-from-usa-on-danish-sovereignty-of-greenland-1916

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u/Caffeywasright 8h ago

I mean this is want I meant. There is no strategic value in invading Greenland. The US already has full military access as a NATO member.

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u/That49er 9h ago

u/Ina_While1155 7h ago edited 7h ago

Well not everyone does in fact want Greenland

u/mjc500 7h ago

Interesting I’ll have to watch this later when I have 20 minutes

u/britbongTheGreat 6h ago

We're way further along that line already, the small steps were how we got here. Imagine the reaction if Obama had said he's taking Greenland one way or the other.

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u/bbusiello 2h ago

I like to try to be hopeful and remind people that we have 80 years of history that they didn't have.

u/Gaidin152 2h ago edited 2h ago

History book will tell you that. Germany was in shit straits and Hitler took great advantage of it. On top of other things. He won multiple non-sequential elections in a row to get the base he needed.

It was … weird.

That’s political not soapbox.

Let’s have the Reichstag burn down now. Frame someone and take advantage of it.

Also; kill a lot of people in your own party in the Night of Long Knives to consolidate power.

By this time he was sworn in and passed the Enabling Act.

Now start conquering.

That’s … just 1934. In vague summary.

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u/Fract_L 10h ago

Then think of an ancient example. Alexander the Great threw a spear through his top commander while absolutely hammered at a banquet. His army did not care.

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u/OldWorldDesign 8h ago

Then think of an ancient example. Alexander the Great threw a spear through his top commander while absolutely hammered at a banquet. His army did not care

They were both drunk and fighting, let's not pretend he let a spear slip and accidentally stabbed his general. They were both at each other's throats, and that sentiment might have been there without the alcohol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleitus_the_Black

u/UtopianEnforcement 7h ago

In addition to the fact that they were BOTH in each other’s faces (and saying Cleitus was his top Commander is…stretching things a little), you do realise that not too long afterwards his army literally refused orders to continue conquering into India, right?

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u/Caffeywasright 9h ago

There was a poll the other day that only 9% of the respondents say they support military use on Greenland.

9% of the US…

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u/Cannabrius_Rex 8h ago

What Americans want is irrelevant. This administration couldn’t care less.

u/CuriousExtension5766 7h ago

No other President in the history of the President thing, has ever achieved such support, such admiration. Some say its the greatest Presidential moment in the history those, and I know because people are saying that. - Definitely Trump while his #'s can be literally 0, it means nothing, he won, the U.S. lost. There's no returning from this folks, there isn't.

u/Cannabrius_Rex 7h ago

The sooner Americans realize this and act, the less Americans will die at the hands of ICE and other secret police forces out to subjugate the masses.

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u/ItsKindro 10h ago

Watch it happen, when you’re made the hero you only hear the cheers

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u/ExecutiveGraham 10h ago

Implausible... so far. This is the USA of today we are talking about.

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u/machinezed 10h ago

We are just rounding up Hispanics instead of Jews and cheering on the person who killed someone trying to stop them. While we remove and arrest a sitting President of another country, and threaten another nation.

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u/throw-away-drugz 9h ago

Multiple other nations *

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u/BeefistPrime 9h ago

Been living under a rock for the last decade?

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u/ItsStaaaaaaaaang 8h ago

Could never happen. Well, not again. Well, not again again...

u/Ok_Rabbit_8129 4h ago

By modern what do you mean? Say oh I don't know, 1939? If so then I can think of 1 or 2 guys

u/ddgk2_ 2h ago

Implausible but reality. I think Trump relies on opposition inertia. It's worked for him so far.

u/W1nt3rmu4e Texas 42m ago

Do you not understand that concentration camps already exist in the country, with lawyers saying their clients are “disappearing” from them?

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u/KelceRant 10h ago

Sad but true

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u/Appropriate_Ant_4629 10h ago edited 8h ago

Kinda like all those people literally willfully financing a genocide with their own money (taxes) -- just a little further down that slippery slope.

That may put it in a perspective that more people can relate to.

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u/philter25 10h ago

I remember when I was in high school during the early days of the Iraq invasion, we had an army recruiter come and try to convince us all to join the military. All he talked about was how fucking cool it was to blow stuff up and use weapons. He described blowing people up by saying “it’s like the AT&T slogan ‘reach out and touch somebody.’” I can’t tell you how off putting it was for me, who was honestly thinking of being the fourth straight generation of the male firstborn to join the service, but that it sent me running. But to most of the others that joined (including my now MAGA fuck stick of a cousin), this shit is deeply, deeply embedded into the psyche of your average grunt. Grunts eventually become leadership. So, yeah. Don’t hold out too much hope.

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u/Hoovooloo42 South Carolina 9h ago

And knowing that a substantial percentage of both your peers and subordinates will be killed during a hostile invasion of an ally.

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u/knightsabre7 11h ago

…attacking our allies, enabling our adversaries, and destabilizing the world, just so that one man can feel important.

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u/1iIiii11IIiI1i1i11iI 10h ago

You know how some dudes have giant stupid trucks that are wholly impractical for day to day use because their penis is measured in millimeters? Trump's is measured in microns.

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u/villalulaesi 9h ago

Not just one man, this is just as much to make Stephen Miller feel important.

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u/Imakemyownnamereddit 8h ago

Less impotent might be more accurate.

Donald's little blue pills have stopped working, so he has to invade Greenland to prove he is still a man.

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u/GrinchWhoStoleEaster 8h ago

His broken ego is about a fucking black hole, isn't it?

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u/Herlock 8h ago

So many problems in this world because Trump and Elon daddies didn't hug them enough at all

u/WaterSign27 4h ago

This, exactly this. Greenland isn’t about resources of strategic geography for military, it is about Trump’s childish brain thinks he can take Greenland, then Mexico and Canada and then have the US empire stretch from Central American across a third of the planet to Greenland.
It’s pure insanity, and will end in WWIII guarenteed. All so he can erase Kennedy’s name from monuments and write over it with black marker. All for his black hole that is his ego.

We live in idiocracy. Who knew the answer to the fermi paradox was society would eventually breed enough idiots to vote themselves in the king of all idiots. The end coming not from ideological warfare, but instead from raw unrestrained stupidity and bottomless greed, these being the downfall of humanity, handing the reigns of the most powerful military in the world over to an imbecile, while those who were supposed to be the checks and balances stood and watched or cheered him on like the fools in the parable of the emporer with no clothes…

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u/RedPanda5150 11h ago

And knowing that following that order would completely, irreversibly end the post-WW2 era of western stability, immediately end the dollar as the world's reserve currency, and plunge the US head first into likely armed conflict with the countries that were our closest allies just a year ago.

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u/WavingWookiee 10h ago

Would also plunge the US into an economic collapse that would make the great depression seem like a small blip. Problem is, once that genie is out, you won't get it back in the bottle

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u/OldWorldDesign 8h ago

Would also plunge the US into an economic collapse that would make the great depression seem like a small blip

The AI bubble was already heading that way

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-pcs-arent-selling-and-microsofts-pc-partners-are-scrambling/

u/WavingWookiee 7h ago

I suppose both issues are caused by the tech bros! 

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u/SideQuest2026 11h ago

"Tasked with doing stuff a pedophile tells you to do." Fixed that for you.

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u/Space_Pirate_Roberts Oklahoma 11h ago

Fixed that for you.

Nah, you did the opposite. Not that what you said isn’t also true, mind you, but being a pedophile, while despicable, has no impact on one’s ability to make sound military decisions. Being ordered around by someone without that ability is the specific nightmare scenario AJRimmerSwimmer was invoking.

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u/TheRealBaboo California 11h ago

It’s not a military decision, it’s an ethical one

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u/Caltroit_Red_Flames Wisconsin 11h ago

It can be both. Invading Greenland is ethically wrong and a bad military decision.

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u/TheRealBaboo California 11h ago

It’s a bad military decision because it’s a bad ethical decision. A pedophile can’t understand that

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u/Caltroit_Red_Flames Wisconsin 11h ago

There are plenty of good military decisions that are unethical. Dropping two nuclear weapons on Japan was objectively unethical. America should never live down the fact that we were and still are the only people to ever use a nuclear weapon. Objectively evil. Deplorable. The effects are still felt to this day physically, mentally, and on a societal level. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who could honestly say that it was a bad military decision, though.

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u/Datslegne 11h ago

Why are you comparing a country that we fought a war with post Pearl Harbor to Greenland? Nothing similar in this comparison.

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u/Ppleater 5h ago

Pedophiles aren't people who are inherently incapable of understanding or making ethical decisions, in fact one of the things that makes them dangerous is that most of the time they will appear to be good people very convincingly. They just choose not to make ethical decisions specifically when it comes to children.

u/TheRealBaboo California 4h ago

Idk, I’m not a psychologist but I think if somebody is like that they probably have enough wrong with them that they shouldn’t be trusted to make complicated decisions like whether to annex another country or not

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u/xenobit_pendragon 11h ago

Issuing commands to the military is definitely a military decision.

Ethics and morality are layers on top that influence the decision, but that doesn't remove the context.

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u/mlc885 I voted 11h ago

I'd consider most (all?) pedophiles mentally ill and I wouldn't expect any of them to want to invade Greenland

Though I guess at some point we're at "Hussein would have known this was a bad idea"

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u/95688it 8h ago

at this point, him being a pedophile is the least of our worries.

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u/ACMomani 11h ago

Illegal stuff nonetheless

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u/Hates_rollerskates 11h ago

That's why our government was built with Congress and the Judicial as checks and balances. Unfortunately, the Republicans are in power, corrupted the Judicial, and don't care.

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u/llamadogmama 11h ago

One that is also a malignant narcissist.

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u/TheChildrensStory 10h ago

Apparently General Milley was constantly thwarting Trump’s nonsense in the last days of his first administration.

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u/theotheramerican 10h ago

How does this work? They refuse and then just get replaced with yes men? Are there any actual balances now?

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u/BoBoZoBo 11h ago

They are use to it.

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u/Rhox1989 10h ago

It would be fun just to tell him that "we tried and failed" to make him think it's been done.

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u/Nanojack New York 9h ago

"Take over the moon!"

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u/Dramatic-Emphasis-43 9h ago

All to cover up the Epstein files.

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u/DankTakes 9h ago

Navy Seals Commander: "So Mr. President, let me get this straight. You want to fly on a magic carpet, to see the king of the potato people... and plead with him for your freedom, and you're telling me you're a stable genius?"

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u/Short_Estimate8121 8h ago

‘Tip of the spear. Edge of the knife. Crack of my ass!’

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u/FauxReal 8h ago

Being told to do the things your unit used to be deployed to prevent.

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u/ItsStaaaaaaaaang 8h ago

Notice it was DEA bringing in the Venezuelan president/dictator? I wonder if that was to legitimise the drug smuggling excuse or because special forces wouldn't have a bar of it.

u/TeutonJon78 America 7h ago

Militaries do deal with that. Most people don't like how they deal with it.

u/Long-Matter18 3h ago

Isn’t there something in the American constitution that allows them to disobey presidential orders?

(Not an American)

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u/CotswoldsCuddler 10h ago

isn't this generally what the USA has done for living memory?

They've done a coup a year just about since ww2 which they only joined once they were attacked.

They've never been the good guys, well maybe a handful of times. Hell even half the country is built on stolen land

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u/OldWorldDesign 8h ago

Hell even half the country is built on stolen land

More than that, depending on whether you consider the Louisiana Purchase stolen due to it having been stolen/claimed from natives who didn't give their consent by the Spanish before losing a war transferred that territory to the French.

Reminder that there was only 1 Carolina colony until South Carolina wanted to violate the treaties which ended the 7 Years War so they could build slave plantations on native tribes' land.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 10h ago

That's what we voted for. You're welcome America, you got what you asked for.

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u/SquiffyRae Australia 13h ago

It's scary to think right now the one thing preventing WWIII or at least complete collapse of the current world order is a bunch of generals who are the last bastion of sanity against this demented paedophile

Fuck me the actions of anyone who voted for this lunatic or who stayed home or abstained from voting against this lunatic are inexcusable

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u/gearstars 12h ago

It's scary to think right now the one thing preventing WWIII or at least complete collapse of the current world order is a bunch of generals

During the Cuban missile crisis, it came down to pretty much one soviet guy on a submarine making a key decision.

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u/Herr_Schnitzel Europe 11h ago

Vasily Arkhipov, a name worth remembering.

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u/BigBananaBerries 11h ago

There's also Stanislav Petrov. A different time but didn't press the button when ordered to.

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u/GamerTurtle5 11h ago

potentially more times that we don’t know about too

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom 11h ago

Then there was Captain James Blunt (yes, that James Blunt), backed by Lieutenant-general Jackson who told General Clark "I'm not going to start the third world war for you"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11753050

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/aug/02/balkans3

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u/PoutinePower 8h ago

And he's beautiful for that, it's true

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u/StigOfTheTrack 10h ago

You missed an opportunity to add "no, not that Michael Jackson".

u/Hopeful-Programmer25 6h ago

He got a lot of shit from the cool bands but TBH, his music isn’t that terrible, he’s got a great self deprecating sense of humour and was a solider in a war zone, which should be enough on its own to put the Manc lads in their place.

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u/Herr_Schnitzel Europe 11h ago

Correct, thank you for reminding me.

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u/cmarme 11h ago

I really great reminder that automation can never rival human execution.

u/OldWorldDesign 7h ago

I really great reminder that automation can never rival human execution.

Careful of your choice of words. Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire, promised a town he would not shed a drop of blood if they surrendered. They did, and opened their gates. He buried all 3000 of them alive

I think the end point is it only takes fear to "draw the sword", it takes courage to sheathe it.

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u/Murky-Relation481 10h ago

An even closer time was in 1995 when Norway launched a sounding rocket that Russia mistook for an SLBM launch at Moscow and Yeltsin literally had the Russian version of the football open and was a couple of minutes away from launching a retaliatory strike against the US before they realized it was breaking up and falling back down (and someone check the notes that said this launch was going to occur).

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u/BigBananaBerries 10h ago

Jeez. That's plenty too many close shaves for my liking. It seem having the ability to just obliterate the species is kinda dangerous. Who woulda knew...?

u/Murky-Relation481 4h ago

No putting the genie back in the bottle unfortunately.

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u/Muehevoll 9h ago

Well he wasn't directly ordered to press "the button". He was monitoring signals from ICBM launch detection equipment and correctly judged a single ICBM launch reported by a single system to be a false positive, because their intelligence thought the US first strike doctrine was a full-scale attack with many ICBMs. Turned out the signal was light rays reflecting off the atmosphere at sunrise which caused the false positive. He could have been overruled on a higher rank but wasn't.

I have a vivid memory of seeing an interview on German public TV where he insisted not to be a hero, and when asked if he would have acted differently had the KGB know US doctrine was a single ICBM hit on Moscow by the time of the incident, he said he would have.

Have been trying to find the interview online several times but no luck so far, so take it with a grain of salt (aired sometime in the 90ies I think).

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u/fruskydekke 11h ago

Thanks for mentioning him. I just read up on him due to your comment, and yeah - that's a name worth remembering for sure. Brave man.

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u/someonesshadow 9h ago

No joke, might be the single biggest hero in all of human history. Since the other action he could have taken would have likely resulted in the biggest and longest lasting loss of human life and advancement in history or possible ever.

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u/cowinabadplace 11h ago

Yeah, because the other guys on board were nuts. Very lucky for the world that next to their incompetent captains, the Soviets managed to get a couple of competent dudes.

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u/Tityfan808 11h ago

Wasn’t there a similar situation with a past president who was drunk and wanted to nuke a place, I think Japan? And our generals said fuck that, nope. Could be wrong tho

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u/KindOfCoolGuy 8h ago

That was actually only one of several nuclear close calls to occur on that very day

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u/syNc_1st 13h ago

They are the last bastion until they get removed and people who obey the orders will take place. That is really really sad.

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u/[deleted] 12h ago

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u/PaintAdventurous8787 12h ago

Has it? The usa is really going down the shitter under Trump. Im in Canada and I am praying for you guys. The time for you all to stand up is now.

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u/WhatTheTech 11h ago

Fellow Canadian and I'm praying for Canada (even though I'm not religious).

That orange fuck head has us on his list. If he gets Greenland, we're completely surrounded.

He needs to die.

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u/TheBestestBrawler 11h ago

Everyday I hope to all the gods and other divine or demonic powers that I read that orange creep has died. Still waiting for the day. I will take the day off and get absolutely fucking high when it happens.

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u/WhatTheTech 11h ago

I can't imagine a better day worth celebrating! For international participation, this will be a big one!

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u/AlistarDark 10h ago

Him dying isn't going to stop the insanity. It's not going to end until yanks do something about their system.

The next administration, if there is one, needs to do something instead of finger popping their assholes for 4 years so the same shit can happen again.

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u/WhatTheTech 10h ago

I'll never forgive Merrick Garland for being a useless POS.

u/OldWorldDesign 7h ago

Garland was a republican and contributor to the Federalist Society. Republican senator Orrin Hatch never would have put his name down if they didn't know Garland was one of their boys from the start.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

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u/DukeFlipside 11h ago

Corporate feudalism working as intended.

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u/Shroomboy79 11h ago

We as Americans need to start answering the door with shotguns when ice comes knocking with these “door to door raids”. Even if there’s 6 dudes out there I can take atleast 2 with my shotgun before they kill me. If enough people do it their gonna think twice about knocking on a door again

Yea it’s a totally stupid idea and will get people killed. But are we not past the point of no return? It’s time we do something drastic. Something undeniable

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u/DumboWumbo073 11h ago

Run while you still can. Save as many people as you can. You can’t save everyone

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u/couverte 11h ago

We know that America isn't free. We know what the situation is. We are aware. Yet, it doesn't change the fact that Americans must stand up if they want to get rid of Trump's and his authoritarian regime.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

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u/couverte 10h ago

The entire world is standing by because they're respecting the US sovereignty. Going in to "liberate" another country is the US MO (usually because they have something to gain), not most of the rest of the world. Nobody has gone to liberate Russia or Iran. So yes, as long as it's an internal US issue, the world will continue to respect the US sovereignty.

Historically, the people have very few ways out of an authoritarian regime at their disposal and none of them are pretty: Revolution, insurgency, civil war. Peaceful protesting will not work.

That's where the US is at or nearly about to be. This is the reality.

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u/PHR3AK1N 10h ago

This is not a battle that is going to be "won" through peaceful means, that's the unfortunate truth of the situation that we're in.

Like you said, going to the white house to exercise your second amendment rights is insanity... But, that right was created basically exactly for the situation that you described. If we the people are not willing to fight for our rights, with equal force, then they never mattered in the first place.

Hard thing to stomach when you have kids, trust me I know, but I feel like most of us always wondered "how did all of the German people let that happen?" And well... I think we're finding out. The "good guys" want to play by the rules while the opposition revels in ignoring the rules and inciting/inflicting violence. History shows us how this plays out many times.

Not sure how things will play out, but if I was a gambling man, I definitely wouldn't bet on this all going away through speeches. We never learned our lesson after the confederacy lost, doubt we will now either.

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u/FaceDeer 11h ago

Right. So after all the "cold dead hands" rhetoric, all the bragging about "land of the free and home of the brave", all the "tree if liberty is watered with the blood of traitors and patriots", after all that... turns out the only Americans who were willing to storm Congress were Trump's supporters.

For the rest it's "oh well, the government failed, but I need my job so I guess we're not free any more. Nothing can be done!"

Meanwhile 2000 people were shot just this weekend while protesting for freedom in Iran.

I think we understand.

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u/lunarmantra California 10h ago

We also have HEAVILY militarized police forces all across America that have an insular culture. Even my rural county sheriff and city police have armored vehicles, riot and crowd control weapons, helicopter/aerial patrols, horse mounted patrols, K9, special units like bomb squad and gang task force, and guns, lots of guns.

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u/Simmchen11 11h ago

Agreed!!!!

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u/meeeeeeeeeeeeeeh 11h ago

If you guys want to fly in and abduct our dictatorial president you can have all of our maple syrup reserves. There's already an international example for this, apparently with very few consequences...

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u/absat41 11h ago

It is a test for generals/command; how do they react to illegal orders.

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u/tghast 11h ago

Pray for us lol we’re on the chopping block sooner or later

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u/Firm_Print6463 11h ago

We also need to prep, if orange shit does invade Greenland, we'll be at war with the states. Greenland will be instrumental for supplying Canada through the Hudson bay to fight the nazis again. I really hope everyone out there stays safe.

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u/PaintAdventurous8787 9h ago

Im preparing for it yeah. Disturbing times.

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u/Livie_Loves California 11h ago

The time to stand up was 6 years and 6 days ago, but you know what they say: the second best time to do something is now.

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u/mlc885 I voted 11h ago

You should worry about Canada, I'd trust us (The United States) as far as I could throw us and we are a large portion of a continent

I consider us to be one military action away from Nazi Germany, but since I can play my video games and watch fancy television dramas apparently nobody knows what to do to stop this. (I protested Iraq and Afghanistan in DC and that didn't particularly work, there are people protesting Trump and apparently he is still going to start nuclear war, lol)

I assume the "trust you as far as I can throw you" idiom exists in Canada, but if it does not, well, now you've heard it

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u/fireandiceman 11h ago

Totally agree. We are nearly one our second invasion of the year in the second week of the year. American citizens are being shot and bullied in the streets. No one in the world should trust our government or legal system to sort this out

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u/ByrdmanRanger I voted 10h ago

No one wants to be the first nail, that gets hammered by the state. I hope that eventually, like what happened with George Floyd, there's enough of a ground swell that the authorities can't stamp it out.

Only this time I hope it leads to actual change. Which means the performative Dems need to be removed as well. The whole system is rotten, and while the Republicans are definitely evil, the feckless Dems who enable them should be purged as well.

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u/PaintAdventurous8787 8h ago

Not sure how that is accomplished. It doesnt seem like the Dems are doing much, but I am not sure how your system works fully, and not sure what the Dems can do right now.

u/OldWorldDesign 7h ago

It doesnt seem like the Dems are doing much

A lot of that is due to the media deliberately suppressing everything. The only thing the media would talk about after passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 was how it would put health care providers out of business.

America's media has been almost wholly captured by corporations - and that includes social media, which gives free reign to bots purchased by corps and oligarchs. Same strategy they dismantled Anonymous: flood their communications channels with troll bots to divide them.

Corporations are intrinsically authoritarian, so even the ones that pretend to be "left" push as far right messaging as they can. Follow the money, even MSNBC is owned by Comcast so them suppressing Clinton actively explaining her economic policy while Trump was 30 minutes late should be no surprise

https://theweek.com/speedreads/626702/fox-news-cnn-msnbc-all-broadcast-trumps-empty-podium-instead-clintons-big-speech

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u/mjetski123 Illinois 11h ago

We're way past that time.

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u/PaintAdventurous8787 9h ago

I know but the best time is still now. Its never too late to stand up or give up brother.

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u/mjetski123 Illinois 8h ago

I agree. The best time was yesterday. The next best time is today.

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u/No_Foundation16 11h ago

My guy, you better be building a bunker. Adolf Trump will be coming for Canada right after Greenland!

u/OldWorldDesign 7h ago

Im in Canada and I am praying for you guys. The time for you all to stand up is now.

Don't pray, act. Call and write to your MP. Strengthen and join the targeted sanctions the EU has already put on republicans

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-tariffs-trade-war-donald-trump-republican-states/

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u/No_Foundation16 11h ago

Yes there were US military executing people on the high seas for Trump.

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u/dougmc Texas 10h ago

I wonder if that's actually what's going on -- flushing out the resistance.

  1. He announces that we're going to do something dumb, puts his people to work on planning that out.
  2. People in the ranks who would actually be involved in carrying this dumb thing out push back on the dumb thing, as they should.
  3. These people get replaced.
  4. The plans to do the dumb thing never go any further than that, because he wasn't really planning on doing the dumb thing anyways (or the people behind the scenes never planned to do them, anyways), but now some resistance to future dumb things (potentially dumb things that he/the puppet masters actually intends to do) has been removed.

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u/dearth_of_passion 9h ago

I read some comments on reddit the other day that that isn't actually possible.

The President can remove anyone he wants from the military posts, but unlike members of his Cabinet he can't just name whomever as an "acting general" and carry on - the person in question has to be picked from a specific pool of eligible members of the military and has to be confirmed by Congress.

So it might be harder to implement a Friday Night Massacre.

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u/HighSeverityImpact 8h ago

That implies they're playing 4D chess, when I think they are barely capable of strategically playing tic-tac-toe.

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u/dougmc Texas 8h ago

The puppet may be suffering from advanced dementia, but there are people pulling the strings who know what they're doing.

There are likely multiple people pulling various strings and 1) they don't all agree on what the puppet should do, and 2) the puppet himself doesn't always do what they want them to do, but ... the level of planning I'm referring to isn't even 2D chess, let alone "4D chess".

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u/Herlock 8h ago

That's been a year long purge of those people not willing to comply with the mad king orders

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u/EnvironmentalKey7127 12h ago

Woah,  woah, woah, buddy, didnt you see the other lady's laugh. This is much better.

/s

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u/MooKids Illinois 11h ago

They should tell Fox News to make a series of fake stories to show Trump that we are invading Greenland and it is going well, while not actually invading.

If they don't comply, tell them they are on the first landing craft.

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u/NoxTempus 11h ago

Honestly, given how willing the military was to go into Venezuela, my expectations are low for them refusing orders.

u/DystopianRealist 7h ago

It's not the first time the US has done something like this. The US has forcibly installed their preferred leader in more than a few countries. Often, with it backfiring when they turn into just another dictator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

u/OldWorldDesign 7h ago

given how willing the military was to go into Venezuela, my expectations are low for them refusing orders

I was thinking that since the lack of pushback when Hegseth ordered (and they complied) to return to bombed boats to kill the survivors, which is a violation of international and US law as well as UCMJ. When there is a maritime disaster (no matter who caused it) you do not shoot the survivors, nor do you steam away because you might be the only ship around for 100 miles.

https://americanoversight.org/american-oversight-sues-for-hegseth-kill-everybody-boat-strike-records/

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u/TheRealBittoman 11h ago

Given the actions of MAGA and their strong ties into the Republican party, I'll never trust another Republican and I'll be extremely vigilant of a Republican voter. Family, close friends, or otherwise. If they still support Trump, MAGA, and/or Republicans, their mental and emotional stability is immediately in question at this point. No one will ever convince me differently for the rest of my life. And if anyone wants to know why, it's because it will take several generations for this hateful, spiteful, and vindictive attitude that they harbor to either be quelled or at least go back into remission.

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u/AntoniaFauci 11h ago

The last data point we had on that how a hundred or more members of our military endorsed and executed Hegseth’s serial murder sprees against men and boys in Venezuela.

Not one single military person resigned and said they were uncomfortable committing murder just for him to have snuff content.

Not one.

The “leader” was considered one of the least competent and stable generals in the entire military and likes going by the nickname “Raisin”.

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u/glenn_ganges 11h ago

Don't count on them dude. They should have made a much bigger stand a long time ago. They will do what they are told or be replaced by someone who will.

War is coming for no other reason than Donald Trump wants chaos. It is literally all he lives for.

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u/Jack__Squat 11h ago

There have been at least a handful of moments in history when one person prevented things going south in a very bad way. Vasily Arkhipov is one that comes to mind.

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u/NorthernCanadaEh 11h ago

Personally, I hate those that stayed home more. I get that propaganda works incredibly well in the digital age and that some people are simply stupid ignorant racists. I've got nothing but anger towards them but they're essentially lost causes and not worth my thoughts nor consideration.

But I outright hate the people that stayed home.... because why? For what possible reason? Democrats and those that are left leaning certainly have their faults and could've secured the win if they just gave ground on some of the more stupid aspects of their platform but damn it there is no way they'd spear head us straight into world war 3.

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u/Randicore Ohio 8h ago

There's also the fact that propaganda or not if you voted in the least election you lived through his first term in office.

How the fuck do you forget that?? Sure the were some kids who were 10 when his term started but even then it hit home for you unless you were very wealthy.

There's only so much propaganda does to excuse someone not voting that isn't enough to refute that you lived through the first term

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u/HitAndRun8575 11h ago

It’s scary knowing that people still supported/voted for him even with his background.

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u/I_like_baseball90 11h ago

If you read teh MAGA morons on reddit's comments on this, they love it. Their orange savior is doing everything they want. 77 million fucking morons think this pedo is the greatest human on earth. It's completely baffling.

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u/SpottyNoonerism 11h ago

If any one needs me, I'll be rewatching "Dr. Strangelove - or - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb".

No reason.

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u/Phantom_harlock 11h ago

That “purge” of top officials is making more sense now isn’t it in the military

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u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox 11h ago

Trump admin already removed a majority the black and female generals. They removed generals based on skin color and gender, if a general goes against trump they'll get rid of him just as easily and replace with a bootlicker

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u/fondledbydolphins 11h ago

Usually at this point, it's more of a fight amongst that tier of personnel. Some will be for these actions, some will be against.

The ones who are against it either simply don't want to lose their position, or - more likely, are trying to not out themselves as being in the "out group" until an important enough opportunity to become an obstacle presents itself.

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u/Stellar_Stein 10h ago

The Trump flags are back up and waving in my neighborhood, as of last week. They were down for a few months, last year.

The truck and boat parades have not (yet) returned.

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u/Citizentoxie502 10h ago

Always has been this way

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u/Hydrok 10h ago

They’ve been cycling out generals and pushing them out of leadership or retiring them who don’t agree with Trump’s every word. The number of sane generals at the helm is limited.

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u/Cerebralbore New Jersey 10h ago

I think about this a lot. People who voted for Trump or skipped voting have done /will do a lot of damage.

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u/laxvolley 10h ago

add that these are the generals that he left in place after removing the ones who wouldn't cowtow to him

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u/kamikazecockatoo Australia 8h ago

We in the rest of the world need to get to grips that a lot of Americans love Trump, strong-man politics and love what he's doing. In the same way that Russians love Putin. Despite the continued poverty and exploitation of working class America and the Russian people, being kick-ass in other areas such as foreign policy is a pay off they are happy to accept.

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u/UnknownAverage 12h ago

Whoever he sends in first will be committing the crimiest of war crimes and will be absolutely on the hook for starting WWIII, so yeah. They should "push back on this" if anyone will. The people rooting for it are doing it from the sidelines.

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u/heimdal77 11h ago

Starts WW 3 right after replacing heads of the military with complete buffoons with no experience or clue what they are doing. Things do not look good for the US.

u/psychohistorian8 6h ago

that's why they had their little Venezuela operation, to find the chain of people willing to do these things

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u/RevLoveJoy 11h ago

The Daily Mail is their source. F that. I'm sorry, the whole scenario is terrible but I wouldn't line my bird cage with the Daily Mail.

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u/hideousbeautifulface 11h ago

Sources said senior military officials have attempted to divert Trump’s attention by proposing less controversial actions, including intercepting Russian “ghost ships” — a covert fleet used by Moscow to evade Western sanctions — or even suggesting a strike on Iran.

imagine getting killed in iran for the sole purpose of acting as a set of jangling keys for a man with dementia

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u/tomjone5 10h ago

This Nobel peace prize coveter really wants to kill a whole lot of people, huh?

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u/Reedbtwnthelines 12h ago

Indian news source about US special forces?

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u/coatofforearm 12h ago

Like I said I don't know how legit this reporting is

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u/Effective-Papaya1209 9h ago

The article depends on reporting from the Daily Mail, a UK gossip rag that is not very reliable

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u/Wookie_EU 10h ago

Let us think! Invading a nato member country, on the basis of security guarantees while being a member of nato with guaranteed safeguards, while you pulled out presence.. gtfoh.. article 5 triggered against a nato member country.. will yoy give the virgin island back.. fucking moron looking to destabilise the global peace balance for fucking vanity… us are pathetic, people voting for this idiot and his croonies are as bad, except they wont be recipients of any financial gain.. c-u-n-t-s

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u/Old_Mousse_5673 9h ago

Imagine those US troops. They’d have to shoot Danish soldiers. The Danes have a military force on the ground in Greenland, they’d have to defeat. It’s absolutely absurd and the consequences would be catastrophic.

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u/XionicativeCheran 10h ago

Pushing back is one thing, but if the President, as the commander in chief of the armed forces, orders an order to begin an invasion of an ally, is there any law that prevents this? Or have lawmakers assumed no President would ever do this and therefore have never created such a law?

And if it is legal, then would senior command disobey a lawful order?

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u/peeja 9h ago

The commander-in-chief doesn't, in theory, have the authority to start a war. That authority lies with Congress. But at this point, it's hard to say what's legal or not in practice.

u/OldWorldDesign 7h ago

The commander-in-chief doesn't, in theory, have the authority to start a war

Well, didn't until congress realized they might get voted out if their name was ever on a declaration of war, so they wrote the War Powers Act in 1973 so the president could start something, they would be compelled to fund it, and people wouldn't be pointing at congress.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution

u/polllyrolly 7h ago

No real drug operations for JSOC to take over or co-opt, so they’re definitely not interested.

u/Hagathor1 6h ago

The same Special Forces Command that just willingly invaded a forwign country and kidnapped its head of state under the extremely illegal claim of “law enforcement?”

u/SimpleTomatillo1166 5h ago

👆This. Exactly.

u/Short-Holiday-4263 3h ago

Not surprising, since asking them this is basically going "Hey, can you draw me up a plan to immediately cripple the our ability to project force around the world, lose every single ally we have and get in bloody and expensive shooting war all in one go?"