Making Friends and Influencing People

"For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."

"If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving [The US move to have Panama return the Panama Canal to the US] are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question."

"I can proudly proclaim that the Golden Age of America is upon us."

"There's a spirit that we have now that we didn't have just a short while ago."

U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump

Donald Trump speaks at a Turning Point conference in Arizona.  Getty Images

There's a certain familiarity with that message, it rings a familiar tone. One we've heard before. Leaving one to wonder, are Russia and the United States leading the world into a new order, leaving the international rules-based order respecting sovereignty of other countries, endeavouring not to intrude on the internal affairs of other nations, observing borders and the right of governance in the hands of freely elected politicians reflecting the agency of individual countries without interference from outsiders, about to undergo change?

 

The human right of nations comprised of populations sharing a history and heritage, in democratic fairness, their security and values reflecting a wide consensus, now endangered by two heads of state of powerful military nations thirsting to expand their control and command by absorbing territories not their own as the presumed manifest destiny of the largest, the strongest, the most militarily inclined, not shirking at imposing war and violence, death and destruction, millions of displaced and refugees in the process?

"Every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to."

Panama President Jose Raul Mulino

 

Greenland is ours. We are not for sale, and will never be for sale."

"We must not lose our years-long fight for freedom."

Mute Bourup Egede, Greenland head of government

Oh yes, and Canada, Canada too. The great northern neighbour of the United States of America. Why not make Canada the 51st State of the Union? It would become the "Great State of Canada". Canadians, like Panama and Greenland citizens take exception. Suddenly the world is faced with another bully in the food chain of territorial ambition and acquisition. By any means necessary.

 

Mr. Trump giving fair warning before he once again assumes office, that a new U.S. is in the offing. A grasping Republic eyeing the natural resources of other countries, feeling justified in envisioning those countries as American protectorates at best, swallowing them whole with whatever means are required and readily justified at worst, by the world's sole super-power with China and Russia heavy-breathing from behind to produce a super-power triumvirate.

In previous years at the helm of government, Trump as President made offers for the U.S. to buy Greenland from Denmark. More latterly, Trump's designs on Greenland as well as taking control of the Panama Canal whose shipping rates for the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific are 'ripping off' American shipping. Everyone is taking advantage of the avuncular nature of the United States. And the incoming president simply will not take it any longer.

To Panama President Jose Raul Mulino's defiant response of ownership of the Canal, Trump's answer was: "We'll see about that!" And presto...a photo of a U.S. flag set up in the canal zone shouts out: "Welcome to the United States Canal!" Built in the early 1900s by the U.S., control was relinquished to Panama in 1999 under a 1977 treaty.

Greenland is sited between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, the largest island in the world, 80% mantled by an ice sheet. Where a large U.S. military base happens to sit. Since 1979, it gained its independence from Denmark. Its head of government has not been entertained by a suggestion of sale to the U.S., as unwelcome now as it was first time around.

Donald Trump is on a tear through the unwarranted complacency of countries now feeling somewhat vulnerable to his impromptu and volatile mood swings and declarations zeroing on in their uneasiness at his return to the White House. "Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State", he recently posted on social video with an AI-generated self-image superimposed on a mountain summit, looking out over territory below, a Canadian flag beside him.

 

Mr. President ...  you're joking!