The Wrong Invasion

In my view, the invasion of Iraq was a distraction to the real war on terrorism. I often disagree with conservative commentator Pat Buchanan but one of his better ideas was that the United States should annex Greenland. Like Iraq, Greenland has oil and possibly vast amounts of the resource. American explorers were the first to reach Northern Greenland. Furthermore, Greenland is part of North America and thereby subject to the Monroe Doctrine. Greenland is incapable of defending itself as a independent nation and nominally governed by Denmark. The U.S. already maintains military bases in and provides for the defense of Greenland. I doubt that the fifty five thousand or so residents of Greenland would offer much resistance to a U.S. annexation, in fact, some might welcome the opportunity to become Americans. Instead of invading Iraq, the U.S. should have invaded and annexed Greenland !

I tested this idea on the Blue Dog Democrat Yahoo Group. One reader liked the idea and suggested that many Greenlanders might be open to voluntary annexation by the U.S. The reader felt the idea was hilarious but actually had some merit. He suggested that Greenlanders could be given a small share of oil revenues and all become millionaires. That's right. A seemingly crazy concept that actually makes sense. We could make the people of Greenland rich and give them the option of coming to a warmer climate in the mainland U.S. if they would like to do so. Of course, Denmark and the European Union would be rather cool toward the idea, but a win-win situation for America and the people of Greenland. We just need to find a Democratic political leader to vigorously advocate the cause of Greenland annexation. Hillary Clinton ? It would give her a more hawkish image. John Edwards ? The right cause to get his name back into the newspapers. Mark Warner ? A way to get much needed foreign policy experience. If not us, Who... ? If not now, When.....?