"One way or the other, President Trump said, he will have Greenland. Well, at least now we know it's the other; not an invasion that would have sent young men home to their mothers across Europe in coffins, but instead another trade war, designed to kill off jobs and break Europe's will. Just our hopes of an economic recovery, then, getting taken out and shot on a whim by our supposedly closest ally, months after Britain signed a trade deal supposed to protect us from such arbitrary punishment beatings."
"In a sane universe, that would not feel like a climbdown by the White House, yet by comparison with the rhetoric that had Denmark scrambling troops to Greenland last week it is. That said, don't underestimate the gravity of the moment. Keir Starmer has tried everything to avoid being forced to choose between Europe and the US, and for a country that has burned too many international bridges lately that was the right instinct. He has swallowed any amount of personal mortification and public disquiet in the process, only to discover that whatever Britain gives, Trump always demands more."
"For this president, you are either all in or all out. Though Britain joined an American military operation to seize a Russian-flagged tanker suspected of sanctions busting only days ago, that didn't protect us from presidential wrath when we also sent a single officer to Greenland last week, in symbolic solidarity with our (and at least in theory the US's) Nato ally Denmark. You can't ride two horses, it turns out, when one is a mad bucking bronco."
President Trump shifted from threat of seizing Greenland to economic retaliation, turning geopolitical tension into a trade assault against Europe. The punitive approach aims to crush jobs and undermine European resolve, disregarding allied norms and recent British efforts to secure protections through trade deals. British leaders sought to balance relations with Europe and the United States, but the US demand for absolute allegiance forced difficult choices. Even military cooperation, including joining US operations, did not shield Britain from presidential ire. The episode signals a breakdown in the western alliance and suggests the United States under current leadership no longer functions as a reliable ally.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]