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[-] Samskara@sh.itjust.works 57 points 1 month ago

These are advance troops that will figure out logistics, where it makes sense to deploy a bigger force. What they need, and infrastructure.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 54 points 1 month ago

They are also a deterrent, if german soldiers are killed shit will hit the fan.

[-] FaceDeer@fedia.io 24 points 1 month ago

Often called "tripwire forces" when they were NATO troops stationed in Eastern Europe. Their purpose is to force the adversary to kill some people before it can take any territory, ensuring that they can't simply make it a fait accompli and hope there will be no further repercussions.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

I mean, we'll see. But if the US really is serious about taking Greenland by force, you've got a US military base already on the island that's been running these defense calculations for decades. It's going to be an uphill climb just to reach parity with the Americans on securing the territory. I hope this isn't perfunctory, and someone is asking the question "How do we deal with one or more US aircraft carriers?" seriously.

[-] GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You mean like that time when a Swedish diesel sub bypassed all the defenses and "sunk" the US carrier?

Or that time when Netherlands sub "sunk" one?

Or that time when Australia "sunk" one?

Or that time when Canada "sunk" one?

Those carriers are far from invincible.

The USA is historically bad at wars - Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea - all lost despite their massive military spending.

The only wars they won in modern times are the ones where they received help from their EU NATO allies.

They're only good at "strike and run away" operations, like the one in Venezuela.

If they can't take Greenland overnight, it will cost them very dearly to go to war with NATO, with no certainty of winning.

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

To add to this, the US is not that great in the Arctic. To occupy Greenland they need boots on the ground, and they are not equipped or manned to do Arctic land operations. EU + Canada surpass them in that. The US only has the one airborne division that are actually cold weather fighters. They also have far fewer ice breakers and the additional units that they were going to buy from Finland (who makes the best ones in the world) will surely be canceled.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

To date, no US aircraft carrier has been lost in a military operation. You're using "sunk" to describe military exercises that informed the US of all the strategies potentially deployed by these countries.

Those carriers are far from invincible.

If the Europeans want to put a US carrier at the bottom of the ocean, I'm not going to shed a tear. But you're pointing to scrimmage runs and exhibition matches, while you've been letting Americans see your playbooks (hell, write your playbooks) for the last 60 years.

Put up or shut up.

[-] FaceDeer@fedia.io 24 points 1 month ago

America lost a bunch in World War II. Since then they've been exceedingly careful not to risk losing them, always putting them up against foes that couldn't hit back. Both because they're expensive, of course, but also to cultivate the very myth that you're falling for - that American naval power is "invincible."

It's not.

[-] GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Typical Americunt, picking and choosing their propaganda points and completely ignoring anything else. Exactly like your orange pedo cunt of a president.

Americunts keep losing their wars against much much weaker militaries and you haven't won a proper war in decades.

Americunts can't win a war without your EU allies because the EU are the ones with successful strategies, like how to bypass the "most advanced navy" defenses and sink their expensive carriers.

Americunts are only good at drive bys and hit and run attacks, you don't know how to fight a proper war. Fact.

So no, Americunts have terrible playbooks. Good luck.

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

This part is particularly silly:

while you've been letting Americans see your playbooks (hell, write your playbooks) for the last 60 years.

Do you believe that other countries have been training alongside Americans for decades and have never picked up any knowledge of their skills, methods, strategy, tactics, doctrine, weapons, etc? Never learned anything at all about how Americans fight? The Americans are the most visible military on the planet, and the most gregarious, they're in every country and training with all of these countries, and somehow no one ever figured out how they do it?

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Do you believe that other countries have been training alongside Americans for decades and have never picked up any knowledge of their skills, methods, strategy, tactics, doctrine, weapons, etc?

I think when you've got 100x players on the field to their 1x, the learning curve tilts in your favor. EU members in subordinate roles and supporting positions, without command and control access to the biggest pieces of hardware, aren't going to have the accumulated experiences of US veterans. Nevermind the amount of time the US has spent in the field relative to their European peers.

The Americans are the most visible military on the planet, and the most gregarious, they’re in every country and training with all of these countries, and somehow no one ever figured out how they do it?

I don't think it's a mystery at a high level. But that's like saying "It's no mystery how Tom Brady won all those football games". When you get into the finer details, you discover why 13 years of Superbowls never produced a rival defense that could consistently shut down the Patriots' Offense.

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I suspect you have puddle-deep insight into global economic dependencies, the fragility of the US economy, the EU + Canada Arctic warfare capabilities, and the likely outcome of an invasion of a northern neighboring country that looks like you, sounds like you, and can hide in plain sight or hop over the indefensible border to bring violence to your homes. The US has no concept of a war that impacts their home country, and dropping some hardware and troops in a country on the other side of the planet, in a country with no economic connection to the US, is not the same thing. Even when the enemy has different skin and vastly different culture and language, they still end up leaving after decades of slaughter having accomplished nothing but huge debt for taxpayers, huge profits for oil companies and defense contractors, and piles of dead Americans.

So, to you I say - do it. Shit or get off the pot. Nothing will hasten the downfall of the shittiest form of America quicker than trying to go to war with the world. You are fighting for treasure, we are fighting for survival. And don't be surprised if the strategy is to pretend to be humbled before Trump, who is incapable of seeing when he's being manipulated, in order to slow play and draw out the inevitable internal and economic collapse.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I suspect you have puddle-deep insight into global economic dependencies, the fragility of the US economy, the EU + Canada Arctic warfare capabilities, and the likely outcome of an invasion of a northern neighboring country that looks like you, sounds like you, and can hide in plain sight or hop over the indefensible border to bring violence to your homes.

Now say it in German.

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

I don't need to, because my grandfather ran up the beaches of Normandy and fought all the way to the German border, alongside Brits and Americans. But the good Americans, not like you. My country has a proud history of fighting fascists, and we actually participated in both world wars from the beginning unlike you guys who showed up years too late, and then spent the next century bragging about how you won the whole thing. You have no concept of suffering during war. In fact you got a golden ticket after WW2 to tune the global economic system to give you every advantage, so I look forward to the moment of realization when you no longer have the dollar standard and all your TBonds get sold off. You might have to actually pay your debts rather than printing money and spending it all on military hardware to enable your foreign corporate adventures.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

my grandfather ran up the beaches of Normandy

Then he'd have told you how much of a bloody mess taking a beach head is with 1930s equipment. Again, nobody in Europe actually wants that noise. That's why there was no major European intervention in Ukraine. Y'all just let the Ukrainians piss away their best and brightest as cannon fodder while up-selling them on Wundertanken that got stuck in the mud.

You have no concept of suffering during war.

If I didn't, I'd be significantly more blase about a military engagement in Greenland.

I'll spot you Trump has no concept, and will presumably fling every member of JSOC into the meat grinder if he thinks it'll win him a 51st state and a Nobel Prize in Bribing The Right People. But the fact that folks in the EU do seem to have a meaningful contingent of anti-war locals would suggest they aren't thrilled with the prospect of sending their kids and grandkids to die over an oversized ice cube.

There's simply no appetite for this shit, which is why Trump (very rightly) believes he can take Greenland without a serious fight. That's the nature of imperialism. The cost of opposing the empire is astronomically higher than the cost of acquiesce, so people tend to duck their heads until the pain is intolerable. And Greenland isn't painful enough to fight over.

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

How do you believe the Axis power will occupy Greenland? Tell me a typical plan. How would it roll out?

And how will it happen without lethal force?

And if EU or Canadian troops are killed, or Greenlanders are killed, do you think it will just be brushed under the rug and dismissed?

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

How do you believe the Axis power will occupy Greenland?

Same way they do it anywhere else. A month of artillery bombardment on every hospital, church, and elementary school with a "Fighting Age Male" in line of sight until everyone in the country is afraid to step outside the house.

Send in the jackboots to take major ports and city centers, then loot the surrounding area of valuables.

Start paying half the surviving population a bounty of bread and cigarettes for every "insurgent" scalp they bring in, and set off a civil war that scars the country for a century.

Then fall back to a Green Zone and use anyone left for target practice with your latest AI powered weapons system.

Write the territory off as "ungovernable" in fifteen years, and have your retired grunts sign a multi-million dollar book/movie deal called "Snowmobile Heroes: Liberation Victory Patrol"

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Ok so they plan to kill their former allies, as well as any Greenlanders that don't want to be occupied, which is all of them.

If you think this is a feasible sane approach, you're either a troll, or you're out of your fucking mind. The world will turn to China and trash the US economy instantly.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

That's been the US modus operandi since Truman.

If you think this is a feasible sane approach

It's no more feasible or sane than any of our other adventurist wars. But it's crazy to think the Europeans are willing to play the role of Punching Bad to our Imperial Iron Fist. If the US is serious about taking Greenland, the Europeans will back out of the way. Because the US is an enormous, horrifying killing machine and Greenland simply isn't worth that kind of heat.

The world will turn to China and trash the US economy instantly.

European reactionaries will be on the side of the US - just like Canadians were in the last election cycle - and they'll likely eat some shit for it in the short term. But the US will continue to pump the continent full of white nationalist propaganda. The liberal European leadership will continue to let it happen. And the reactionaries will win in the end when liberals roll over a few years later.

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

It's no more feasible or sane than any of our other adventurist wars.

All the other times you attacked your allies? All the other wars with Europe and Canada?

This has got to be the stupidest comment you've said in our entire exchange, and the bar is pretty high. If you truly believe that you can flatten all US imperial actions and assume the responses will be the same - and you're comfortable building the granddaddy of all false equivalences ever, comparing invading a NATO member country and killing their citizens to, say, Iraq - then you are well and truly brain damaged.

Thank Christ you're not representative of the real and good Americans, and you should frankly be on your knees thanking them everyday for saving you from yourself and giving you a country that isn't a complete moral and economic shithole. That is assuming they beat you shitpumps down and start reversing course, which it seems like they're doing.

From this point on, I'm assuming you're a bot so I don't start to taint my impression of the majority of Americans who have had enough of the Trump dictatorship. So in light of this assumption, I bid you...piss off wanker.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

All the other times you attacked your allies?

It's sort of our thing

This has got to be the stupidest comment you’ve said in our entire exchange

Brother, if you don't want to learn about this country's history, that's on you. But your need to scream "Stupid!" every time I say something you don't want to hear isn't an indictment of my intelligence, just your maturity.

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Ok buddy.

You think this is like Iraq. I don't need to comment on your intelligence I just need to underline that.

Your insults mean nothing to me. I've been called worse things by better people.

And frankly it's charming that you think people don't know about "your country". I guarantee I know more about the US than you think, and for damn sure more than you do about mine. Note the quotes and my wording...they are used specifically because I don't believe you're an American. I'll remind you, I assume you're a bot or an agent provocateur so you should know that nothing that you're trying to do is convincing me to hate anyone, nor is it changing my mind on anything that I believe. If you want to keep responding back and attempting to insult me, feel free. Maybe it will mean you don't scam or influence anyone else.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Your insults mean nothing to me.

Spilling a lot of ink to suggest otherwise

[-] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

You don't seem to get it. I don't care about your insults against me, but I like insulting you. It gives me a dopamine hit.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I don’t care about your insults

Keep saying that. Maybe you can get someone to believe it

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

aren't going to have the accumulated experiences of US veterans

Oh man, this dinner is going to be so good when I have 100 chefs making it.

[-] prex@aussie.zone 12 points 1 month ago

Are they going to kill German & French troops to do that? If there are UK troops there then goodbye to hundreds of billions in AUKUS $ too.

[-] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

Europe depends more on the US than the US does on Europe. What would the EU do? Sanctions, send more troops, war?
The entire EU economy depends on American companies and would crumble in a few days, without even having to do any military action in Groenland.

[-] prex@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

Would you say - 3 days?
Theres a lot of confident comments in this thread.

[-] Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Any US carrier strike group can probably sink the entire navy of most countries. This calls for a full NATO response because if it doesn't then I don't know what does

[-] Nighed@feddit.uk 12 points 1 month ago

Wasn't it one of the Nordics that 'sunk' an American carried in drills a while back?

[-] perestroika@slrpnk.net 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It did, and the US considered the outcome so concerning that they requested to lease the submarine (but not install a crew - Swedish sailors would operate it in the US navy). Since those were different times, with only mild insanity among US presidents, Sweden granted the request.

Wikipedia tells us:

Secondment to United States Navy

In 2004, the Swedish government received a request from the United States to lease HSwMS Gotland – Swedish-flagged, commanded and crewed, for one year for use in antisubmarine warfare exercises. The Swedish government granted this request in October 2004, with both navies signing a memorandum of understanding on 21 March 2005.[5][6] The lease was extended for another 12 months in 2006.[7][8][9] In July 2007, HSwMS Gotland departed San Diego for Sweden.[10]

[-] Palerider@feddit.uk 9 points 1 month ago

One of? I thought it was several...

[-] Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Yes, the Swedish diesel electric subs are really quiet and hard to detect in a war game scenario, but that is done with many artificial constraints to the defending CSG, which is tightly packed in a relatively small patch of ocean that the Swedish sub knew and could plan for.

In reality those subs are stealthy only while traveling at 6 knots and the CSG can travel at 30 over vast expanses of water, with an effective strike range of 2000 miles.

Also, in war they're allowed to use high energy sonars that they can't use in a war game because it kills marine animals, which will detect a turd floating 500 miles away (exaggerating here but you get the idea).

[-] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

Just interesting math... A singular fully staffed US aircraft carrier anchoring off the coast of Greenland would increase the overall population of Greenland by around 10%.

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 points 1 month ago

It just says that they will be participating in some exercises. Nothing about permanent force.

[-] amateurcrastinator@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Yo Mr. Mertz brief this guy on the real plan and what orders you gave those soldiers!

Should this article also state what they will be having for breakfast?

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 2 points 1 month ago

I wish I was still so naive I believed EU has some secret plan to defeat US. Especially Germany, country that was blind to the threat Russia posed for two decades. Yeah, I'm sure they will go to war over Greenland now...

It's also funny that they are open about sending this tiny group of soldiers, something they could easily hide, but are hiding the plan to send a bigger force, something that will be impossible to hide. Kind of silly, really. Almost like thinking that Germany would commit any permanent force to Greenland without informing their own public.

[-] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

It's all a show yes, they try to show tough now, but will fold once Trump makes any real move for Greenland.

this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
501 points (100.0% liked)

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