Whether it was Will Rogers or Tony Soprano, the old advice of “buy land, God’s not making any more of it” is good real estate advice, but it’s hardly an iron law. First, God does make more land from time to time. And so do humans. This raises a second famous piece of advice, also of unclear authorship. When it comes to real estate, only three things matter: location, location and location.
And that brings us to Greenland.
Donald Trump wants to acquire it. Nay, he says we need to acquire it. The last time he was president, he floated the idea and was roundly mocked for it. But not by me, and I am hardly adverse to mocking Trump when the moment calls for it. For myriad reasons, it would be in our interest for the United States to annex, lease, absorb or otherwise acquire the giant island. The most important of these reasons is, of course, location.
But my opinion doesn’t count for much. James Stavridis, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and hardly a MAGA toady, agrees. He writes that the Mexico-sized island “is a vital element of the Greenland-Iceland-UK ‘gap’ that guards the northern approaches to the Atlantic Ocean from Russian naval forces.”
It’s also believed Greenland has huge deposits of crucial rare-earth minerals, essential to all manner of high-tech industries, industries China is trying to control or dominate.