January 14, 2025

Any Talk of U.S. Taking Greenland Leaves Me Cold

There are more important things to worry about, like cabinet nominees, the economy and the immigration crisis.

Right after graduating from high school, my father enlisted in the Army. He had no idea they would be sending him to the other end of the world, a place where there were six months of darkness and six months of midnight sun.

Teddy Flowers — an 18-year-old Philly boy with an obsession for scrapple and the dulcet sounds of rhythm and blues, this kid who played the harmonica on his front step and smoked Marlboros while still in his altar boy cassock — found himself communing with Eskimos.

At least, that’s what he wrote to my mother, his sweetheart of a year, the woman he would eventually marry. I’m not sure that the inhabitants of Greenland were actually Eskimos, but I do know that they were as foreign to him as this street kid from 49th street was to them.

This was back in 1957, a few years after Greenland became part of Denmark. I remember as a child thinking that it was kind of strange that this giant piece of ice and snow was owned by that tiny little peninsula north of Germany.

I also remember thinking, as most of us have, that Greenland is a slab of ice, while Iceland has thermal baths. Geography has a strange sense of humor.

I haven’t much thought about Greenland in the last 40 or so years of my life. But our incoming president has somehow decided to make this remote and gargantuan chunk of ice the topic du jour.

In a recent press conference, he floated the idea of buying Greenland, even though to my knowledge it’s not up for sale. He also intimated that if the Danes wouldn’t fork it over, we might take it by force.

I thought I was watching stand up comedy when I saw that. Ha ha, force a country to give up land, ha ha, and if they don’t want to, ha ha, let’s just consider going all Sudetenland on them.

Many of my friends viewed it differently. They tried to explain to me that Trump was playing “3D” chess, meaning that he was so much smarter than we were and so just let him do his thing.

It’s what Salena Zito has called the “People who hate Trump take him literally but not seriously, and those who love him take him seriously but not literally.”

Since I neither love nor hate him, I guess that means I have to figure out my own way through this mess. And mess it is.

You don’t suggest that a sovereign nation, like Canada, for example, can be annexed to the United States. Foreign policy involves treating your allies with at least as much respect, and hopefully much more, than your enemies.

I understand Denmark isn’t exactly one of our go-to countries when we think of national security, but it’s a member of the European Union, and deserves not to be the victim of some diplomatic “Flip Your Real Estate” show.

There are also more important things to worry about, like cabinet nominees, the economy and the immigration crisis. After all, those were the things that Trump campaigned upon, not the fate of a giant ice cube.

But still, there are people who will insist that debating the fate of Greenland is a legitimate national security topic, even though we still have bases there and are in no danger of being evicted.

If my father were still alive, I’m certain he’d be as puzzled as I am about this whole dust-up.

This is the imaginary conversation I can hear him having with my mother as he was sitting in his frigid barracks back in 1957:

Teddy: It’s really cold, Lou.

Lucy: I’m sorry honey. You’ll be home soon.

Teddy: Not soon enough. It’s an icebox.

Lucy: I know! And they call it Greenland!

Teddy: The Danes have a wierd sense of humor.

Lucy: The Danes?

Teddy: Yeah, Denmark owns it.

Lucy: Well they can have it!

Teddy: You know it sweetheart. Only a fool would want to own a giant Icebox … plus they speak this crazy language.

Lucy: Well honey maybe one day some visionary will ignore the principal of national borders and just annex it for the U.S. and they’ll learn to speak English!

Teddy: Maybe one day Philadelphians will too.

My dad had a sense of humor. I suppose I’ll have to have one too, from now on.

Copyright 2025 Christine Flowers

Want more articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to The Patriot Post today! It's Right. It's Free.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2025 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.