In a column published by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Sen. Dan Sullivan addressed the idea raised by President Donald Trump — America buying Greenland.
Sullivan isn’t opposed to it necessarily, but made the case that there is already a state that offers all that Greenland does; it’s his home state of Alaska.
“The problem is that the Biden administration has spent its time trying to turn the Last Frontier into a giant national park rather than recognizing it as a great strategic asset,” Sullivan said.
While Greenland would provide the U.S. a gateway to the Arctic, America is already an Arctic nation, thanks to Alaska, he said.
“The Russians and Chinese know my state is at the forefront of great-power competition. In the past two years, there have been 12 air incursions into the state’s air-defense identification zone, including an unprecedented joint Russian-Chinese strategic bomber operation, and large-scale joint Russian-Chinese naval task forces in our waters,” Sullivan wrote. Missile defense for America is properly placed in Alaska.
“Any missiles launched by Russia, China or North Korea against the U.S. would likely fly over the state. That’s why it hosts the vast majority of America’s radar systems and ground-based missile interceptors. To create an Iron Dome for America—a priority of Mr. Trump—we need to add to our national ballistic-missile interceptor capability in Alaska and build a robust layered missile defense and space-based missile sensor capability,” Sullivan wrote.
Trump has ben talking about adding Greenland as a US territory since his first term as president. In recent days, the Danish government reached out to Trump’s team privately and said it is willing to negotiate military and economic deals pertaining to Greenland, but privately with Trump, not in public.
Sullivan went on from national security to talk about minerals, oil, and gas, all resources rich in Alaska that America needs — if only the federal government would get out of the way.
The full column is at this link but behind a paywall. You can have it read to you for free by tapping the “listen” icon at the top of the story.
