this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon has developed plans to take over Greenland and Panama by force if necessary but refused to answer repeated questions at a hotly combative congressional hearing Thursday about his use of Signal chats to discuss military operations.

Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee repeatedly got into heated exchanges with Hegseth, with some of the toughest lines of questioning coming from military veterans as many demanded yes or no answers and he tried to avoid direct responses about his actions as Pentagon chief.

In one back-and-forth, Hegseth did provide an eyebrow-raising answer. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., asked whether the Pentagon has developed plans to take Greenland or Panama by force if necessary.

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[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

It's not necessary to take Greenland at all, so there's no need for a contingency plan. "if necessary" makes no sense.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

What is that stuff on his lips? Looks like pointy pimples. Is it an STD?

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

If you look close at his bottom lip there's a matching red mark. It almost looks like he was in a fight and took a shot to the mouth.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. To me it looks like stuff sticking out of his lip I've seen it before. A manager at a previously loved company used to have one. More like this:

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 3 points 13 hours ago

Oh its HPV! Dudes, get your vaccine before they stop making it!

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago

The US wants to attack a NATO partner?!?! Krasnov is working for the Kremlin to destabilize NATO.

[–] brezel@piefed.social 93 points 1 day ago (3 children)

how can it be necessary to invade a country?

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 58 points 1 day ago

Whenever a republican president wants to be reelected

[–] liverbe@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Resources. The answer is always resources.

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 hours ago

As long as you're counting location as a resource. Ex. Cuba was an advantageous location for the Soviet Union during the cold war.

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 9 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Idk, the gdp of Greenland is only 3b a year and it's mostly from fishing. There's really nothing the US could extract from Greenland that would be worth the cost of invading it. There's some potential for mining, but you'd have to build an entire infrastructure to do it, and we don't even want to invest in building infrastructure in the US.

Realistically the only thing that makes Greenland strategically important would be controlling the shipping lanes up north. However, the only strategically significant rival we have that utilizes those shopping lanes are Russia, whom the administration wants to buddy up too.

I think it's just meat they throw out to the media anytime they want to distract from their failures, and of course our pathetic press just gobbles it up every time.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 9 hours ago

However, the only strategically significant rival we have that utilizes those shopping lanes are Russia, whom the administration wants to buddy up too.

If that doesn't play out, Putin will be dropped like Saddam.

[–] SupaTuba@lemm.ee 3 points 15 hours ago

It's because of climate change. Rich Americans+that pretend climate change isn't real) want to go there to bug out.

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 6 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Lots of great reasons that aren't the actual reason.

Greenland is very big on the map, and if it was apart of the United States then the US would look so big on the map.

Everyone says Trajan was the best roman emperor because the roman empire had the largest amount of territory under him, ergo if Greenland or Canada became part of the US then everyone would say the same thing about Trump.

That is the only reasoning behind this obsession.

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 3 points 18 hours ago

I'd def agree with that before him wanting resources.

[–] Lembot_0003@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago

Ask Putin. He is a big specialist in a related mental gymnastics. He'll tell you how Anglo-Saksonians forced him to invade Ukraine.

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 63 points 1 day ago (6 children)

This by no means diminishes this guy’s level of evil stupidity, but I’m entirely certain the pentagon had developed plans for all kinds of batshit insane shenanigans, including (but not limited to) invasions of probably most other countries in the world.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

I find that a credible thought, though one would imagine an answer to say that they try to have plans for any concevaiable scenario, no matter how unlikely, and have done so for years.

One would imagine if he was good at this politics thing, he would have found an answer to distance such plans from the current contentious situation.

And upon reading, he said precisely that...

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 2 points 14 hours ago

Or not even mention them at all, because what possible beneficial purpose could there be to divulging anything related to your military strategy or planning beforehand?

[–] cattywampas@lemm.ee 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think they have alien invasion plans.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (4 children)
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[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 14 points 1 day ago (3 children)

These people are too stupid and incompetent to realize we already have plans for everything.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Hegseth: You there! Jackson! I want plans on how to invade Greenland on my desk by the end of the week!

Johnson: [Looks at filing cabinet full of plans for invading every other country] Oh, yeah, sure thing, sir. Gonna be a few all-nighters, though. Me and the boys are gonna need some pizzas and a few bottles of Mountain Dew and some cinnamon dipperz.

Hegseth: No problem! Just take it out of the Preventing Kids From Being Thrown Into The Orphan Crushing Machine fund! You're a good man Jackson!

Johnson: Sir, yes sir.

Hegseth: [takes enormous swig out of family-sized plastic bottle of bourbon]

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[–] Apollonius_Cone@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago
[–] MyOpinion@lemmy.today 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What is wrong with these morons.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 15 points 22 hours ago
[–] Harvey656@lemmy.world 10 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

A quick search shows Greenlands population is 56,865. In what world would 56 thousand people, half of which are likely incapable of fighting due to age or sickness, be of any meaningful threat that we would need 'contingency' plans against them. Even if all 56 thousand could fight it would be a non war lasting hours against the military. That gigantic country has a similar population of my home COUNTY.

This shit is dumber than invading the middle east over oil. Is their hard on for... minerals and err... resources? Im not entirely sure why they want Greenland so much. This is stupid.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Denmark is a NATO country and Greenland is part of it. As soon as we attack all of NATO is obligated to attack us. They can start non violet by stopping all trade and dumping the dollar crashing our economy.

Even just to the Greenlanders could be a real problem.

People sabatogue blow up poison and casually murder you after giving in.

We can't murder everyone and the us has been shown to be very intolerant to a few thousand troop deaths not to mention civilian deaths on their side live on TV

It would absolutely be a cluster fuck worse than Iraq

[–] pinkapple@lemmy.ml 0 points 8 hours ago

NATO members can't interfere in conflicts between NATO members, only in conflicts between NATO and non-NATO. NATO is a cold war relic designed to be used against the Warsaw Pact countries, not some universal defense and peace instrument. Right now it's either useless or a tool for western imperialism.

[–] LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

The contingency plan probably isn't about the people at all. It's likely the government has had a plan for a long time, maybe since WWII, about any number of countries including Greenland. Strategic points to either destroy or control. How to repel an invading force as well as how to invade against a repelling force.

That's who the US has become over the last 80 years.

[–] Harvey656@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

So wait, your saying it's about the golden dome or trumps anti nuke wall or whatever i gods name he was talking about.

I stand by the "this is stupid" comment.

[–] LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 5 points 16 hours ago

No, it has nothing to do with the "Golden Dome" nonsense.

The US did all sorts of war game scenarios and plan making during and directly after WWII and they've never stopped.

There's actually probably a lot of countries who have done the same, though I'm not sure to the extent the US has.

The fact that the US has a plan like this by itself isn't newsworthy. Who it's coming from makes it noteworthy because, while the plan may have been created decades ago, it's a very unsubtle threat against another nation.

I agree that this is stupid, but understanding is important because this is how they weasel out of things. If confronted or challenged they'll say, "Oh, that plan was put together decades ago." Everything they do is done with cover because not only are they fascists, they're cowards too.

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

That's 2k more than my small suburb I live in. That's nothing at all.

[–] Harvey656@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

I grew up in a village of around 350... everything is a lot of people to me.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I wonder if Denmark regrets this yet (arc)

With 94 votes in favor and only 11 against, the Danish parliament last night (June 11) passed a new defense agreement granting the United States extended access to military bases in three Danish cities: Karup, Skrydstrup, and Aalborg. The deal allows the US military to operate from these sites, store military equipment, conduct maintenance, exercises, and station personnel. The US forces will also have autonomous legal jurisdiction over their own military, relieving them from compliance with Danish law in the first degree.

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There must be some interesting behind the scenes to this, considering trump has repeatedly threatened their sovereignty in Greenland

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[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, there are "plans" and then there are plans. I'm certain Canada has a "plan" for military operations against the US should that be necessary, but we aren't planning it.

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[–] NotAGamer@lemmy.org 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)
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[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Have they said why they're so obsessed over Greenland? I don't mean why you think they want it, i mean has any of them ever said why?

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think they've said for strategic military reasons (don't know what's wrong with all the EU bases we have) but likely it's because of natural resources. Typical authoritarian shit.

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[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Significant presence in the Arctic circle which may become more valuable with some climate change and/or closer relationship with Russia.

At least that's what I'd guess. Similar story with Canada, more land to have a better chance to respond to climate change.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 1 points 15 hours ago

I don’t mean why you think they want it, i mean has any of them ever said why?

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