War Notes | Ep20: The Jerboa That Squeaked: Broke and Woke NATO on the Warpath

“If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project [NATO] will have failed.” -General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower, February, 1951   The Greenland debacle is bringing the NATO relationship into better focus on just how bad the EU/SSR has become. America should take a non-interventionist pause and get its internal house in order before standing astride the world again and lighting fires that never go away and continuously make things worse. The US a deep history in Greenland: 1867: Andrew Johnson: explored buying Greenland & Iceland (right after Alaska). WWII: FDR: U.S. took over Greenland’s defense while Denmark was occupied. 1946: Truman: offered $100M in gold to buy it. Cold War: Eisenhower → Kennedy: nonstop negotiations for bases, radar, missiles. Post–Cold War: Clinton/Bush/Obama: expanded Arctic security & missile defense. 2019: Trump said publicly what presidents discussed privately for 150+ years. The U.S. didn’t “suddenly” want Greenland. It’s been defending it, negotiating it, and embedding there since the 1800s. Greenland = Arctic power, shipping lanes, missiles, minerals, and bases. Trump didn’t invent it. He said the quiet part out loud. There is a realpolitik logic to the concerns. Stop the madness. First part here: Ep 009 “Fixing Fight Club: Just Say No to NATO: Part One” Second part here: Ep 016 “Fixing Fight Club: Just Say No to NATO: Part Two” References: Defense of Greenland: Agreement Between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark, April 27, 1951Winning The Salvo Competition: Rebalancing America’s Air And Missile Defenses The Russian Reconnaissance Fire Complex Comes of Age Nyet Means Nyet (William Burns 2008) Pat Buchanan Where Does NATO Enlargement End? DoS Cable: NATO ENLARGEMENT: RUSSIAN ASSERTIONS REGARDING THE TWO-PLUS-FOUR AGREEMENT ON GERMAN UNIFICATION Books: Edward Bernays Propaganda Sevim Dagdelen NATO: A Reckoning with the Atlantic Alliance Matt Kennard The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs The American Empire Daniel Ellsberg The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Scott Horton Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine Nassim Taleb Incerto: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, Skin in the Game Mark Gunzinger & Bryan Clark Winning the Salvo Competition: Rebalancing America’s Air and Missile Defense Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare Email at [email protected]