Trump says it’s for psychological reasons that the U.S. must own Greenland. Many of us are skeptical and think that it's bullshit. While Greenland may have some mineral, oil, and gas deposits, these can be developed in the same way they are anywhere. There is oil & gas exploration happening in the onshore Jameson Land Basin with drilling expected in the future. Mineral projects often take decades to develop. The U.S. already has preferential military use of the territory with several bases and the opportunity for more. There is no great rational reason we need to “own” it. Besides, it would be very expensive to buy, and much of what we would be paying for can be done without spending the money to buy it. It is simply irrational.
Trump and Hegseth have
recently evoked the Monroe Doctrine, the idea that we should have control over,
or as they like to say, “dominate” the Western Hemisphere, or as some call it, “our” hemisphere. Bernie Sanders argued the same thing when justifying Russia’s
concerns with Ukraine just before the invasion and criticizing NATO expansion.
He said Russia should be allotted its “sphere of influence” via its own Monroe
Doctrine ideas. Our goal for the Western Hemisphere should most definitely be
to keep out so-called “bad actors,” rogue governments, international organized
crime, and human rights abuses. That is the kind of Monroe Doctrine I can get
behind. We have failed to do that with Venezuela, Cuba, and a few other
cocaine-producing countries that enable organized crime. Certainly, we should
support democracies over authoritarian governments, whether left-wing ones or
right-wing ones. However, I don’t think we should just give ourselves control
of the hemisphere and say we are entitled to it because we are powerful. We
should use our power exclusively to root out crime, corruption, inhumanity, and
other abuses, and even more so if it affects us. We don’t need to declare
ourselves ‘Lord of the Hemisphere.’
One reason that is a bad idea
is that it leads others to see themselves in a similar vein and justify their
own imperialist leanings, particularly Russia. Although Russian hardline
ideologue and architect of Putin’s geopolitical worldview, Alexander Dugin,
mentions countries like China and India should have their spheres of influence
as well, those countries have not invaded other countries for quite a long time
and are not seen as doing so in the future, with the possible exception of
China making a move for Taiwan.
The main issue with China is
its human rights abuses, along with those of Taiwan. India, in general, is not
a bad actor, although it has reaped too many benefits from evading
international sanctions against Russia, and there have been some human rights
issues in Kashmir. India's neutrality doctrine that keeps it more friendly with
Russia than we would like is irritating. Russia, on the other hand, is now
widely established, or perhaps re-established, as a bad actor. The initiation
of the Ukraine invasion in 2014 and its full invasion. Along with its reversion
to totalitarianism and mass human rights abuses, abundant war crimes and crimes
against humanity have firmly re-established Russia as a bad actor in the most
extreme sense. It has also re-established itself as a rogue country, sanctioned
and reviled on the international stage. During the Cold War years, it was
thought that Russia had reformed to be an upstanding member of the
international community. That was a ruse and a lie as the country’s leaders had
no intention of keeping things that way, even if it was to their and their
people’s vast benefit. The Kremlin rules a sinister government, not to be
trusted, not to join with its business ventures, or basic international
agreements. I don’t know what to make of Trump’s recent invitation for Russia
to be a part of his Gaza Peace Board. In my opinion, they do not need to be
invited to anything except peace talks for Ukraine, and if a peace deal is ever
reached, it should not benefit Russia aside from keeping its soldiers from
being slaughtered by its own brutal and inhumane military tactics.
In Greenland, there may be
deals to be made, including a deal that benefits the U.S. and expands its
military presence in the region. Trump has acknowledged that NATO would benefit
from that, and likely Greenland and Denmark would as well. NATO obviously does
not want expanded Russian influence in that region, and neither do the other
parties. In general, the same goes for China.
Dugin is an imperialist,
considered right-wing, who has argued for a pan-Slavic empire in Eurasia, which
favors the glory of Mother Russia and hegemony over its perceived sphere of
influence. The breakup of the Soviet Union benefited the whole world, and its
re-expansion in any form as the Russian Federation would do the exact opposite.
Specifically. Dugin has
openly argued for the invasion of seven former Soviet Republics in the Eastern
Hemisphere: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
and Kyrgyzstan. This should never be allowed to happen. He wants Putin to
formally declare a ‘Eurasian Monroe Doctrine’ to justify future invasions of
these countries and likely others, oddly citing Trump’s quest for Greenland and
a new Trumpian world order.
“Russia is obliged to do something horrible to restore
her credibility," Dugin wrote on X.
"It is very sad that we have to use such kind of
arguments. But we have [no] choice. Only brutality, force, mass destruction and
cruelty matter in Trumplike world."
Of course, what he says is
both untrue and disgusting.
"In this situation, we have no choice but to
declare Russia an empire [and] toss aside international law. Now all that
remains is to acknowledge [the new reality] and begin to act-well, I would say,
like Trump, because we have no other choice.
"So, he says, 'This is my territory, it will be
American'. And we say, 'This is our territory; it will be Russian, Eurasian'.
He says, 'We are asserting dominance in the Western Hemisphere'. We should say,
'And we, along with China and India, for example, declare our dominance over
the Eastern Hemisphere'.
"So the West is for the Westerners, and the East is
for the Easterners. And that's it."
No, that’s not it. Any
Russian expansion would be absolutely horrible for those swallowed up,
including the general population; very few, if any, would benefit from becoming
Russian. The occupied regions of Ukraine have not been made better under
Russian control. That is for certain.
Dugin sees a world with three
poles: the U.S., China, and Russia. The U.S. and China are both powerful
militarily and economically. Russia only has military power, and much of that
has been revealed to be not so great. Its economy is small by comparison. Its
only friends are other rogue countries like Iran and North Korea. Its human
rights abuses suggest that its expansion should be stopped at any cost, and no
human in their right-mind should hope to benefit under such tyranny. Dugin has
even suggested that nuclear weapons could be used in Russia’s imperialist
expansion. That would be a tragedy for humanity, or rather an expansion of the
tragedy for humanity that Russia has already become. For Navalny and the rest
of the oppressed, I will address Dugin by quoting Trump (in another context):
“Fuck you!”
References:
Russia
told to 'toss aside international law' and claim new lands in chilling
expansion. Will Stewart and John O'Sullivan. The Daily Express. January 19, 2026.
Russia
told to 'toss aside international law' and claim new lands in chilling
expansion
No comments:
Post a Comment