The U.S. has — by far — the world’s largest defense budget, spending $948 billion last year. Its armed forces have 1.3 million personnel — some of them currently stationed in Greenland. Denmark, for its part, last year spent $9.9 billion, has only 17,000 soldiers, and most of its heavy land-warfare equipment has been donated to Ukraine.

  • JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
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    7 hours ago

    Maybe the shortest invasion, but the USA invading an ally, and a NATO ally specifically, would have repercussions long after the invasion itself. It could result in the dissolution of NATO altogether which would greatly embolden Russia, and perhaps China and Iran, in their ambitions. I don’t think Trump is particularly concerned about all that, which is the scary part.

    In short, it might be the shortest invasion, but it might be the start of another long war involving most of the world. Which doesn’t seem like a great way to “protect the free world”.

    • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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      6 hours ago

      When you put it that way, you’re making it sound like it might a good thing. Dissolution of NATO? Hell yeah!

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
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      7 hours ago

      It’s pretty obvious to anybody who’s been paying attention over the past three years that NATO is not long for this world. In fact, the dissolution of NATO largely works to US advantage. The US would be able to extricate itself from the obligations to Europe, meanwhile Europeans will be in a panic and sing up for decades long military contracts with the US since they’re in no position to mass produce weapons of their own right now. Russia will continue to be used as a threat to keep Europe scared and dependent on the US. In short, the only party that would end up in a worse geopolitical position here would be Europe.