#servicewomen

[kwistowee]

I AM A VETERAN by Andrea Christensen Brett   You may not know me the first time we meet  I’m just another you see on the street But I am the reason you walk and breathe free  I am the reason for your liberty   I AM A VETERAN   I work in the local factory all day I own the restaurant just down the way I sell you insurance, I start your IV I’ve got the best-looking grandkids you’ll ever see   I’m your grocer, your banker Your child’s schoolteacher I’m your plumber, your barber Your family’s preacher But there’s part of me you don’t know very well Just listen a moment, I’ve a story to tell   I AM A VETERAN   I joined the service while still in my teens I traded my prom dress for camouflage greens I’m the first in my family to do something like this I followed my father, like he followed his   Defying my fears and hiding my doubt I married my sweetheart before I shipped out I missed Christmas, then Easter The birth of my son But I knew I was doing what had to be done   I served on the battlefront, I served on the base I bound up the wounded And begged for God’s grace I gave orders to fire, I followed commands I marched into conflict in far distant lands   In the jungle, the desert, on mountains and shores In bunkers, in tents, on dank earthen floors While I fought on the ground, in the air, on the sea My family and friends were home praying for me   For the land of the free and the home of the brave I faced my demons in foxholes and caves Then one dreaded day, without drummer or fife    I lost an arm, my buddy lost his life   I came home and moved on But forever was changed The perils of war in my memory remained I don’t really say much, I don’t feel like I can But I left home a child, and came home a man   There are thousands like me Thousands more who are gone But their legacy lives as time marches on White crosses in rows And names carved in queue Remind us of what these brave souls had to do    I’m part of a fellowship, a strong mighty band Of each man and each woman Who has served this great land And when Old Glory waves I stand proud, I stand tall                      I helped keep her flying over you, over all   I AM A VETERAN Copyright Andrea C. Brett  2003 All rights reserved

My sweet friend, Andrea, wrote this to honor veterans and it is available in book form with beautiful illustrations HERE.

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

In memory of all those servicemen and servicewomen who have died fighting for the United States. 

[timothysnyder]

At the base, in the far north of the island, the American visitors had pictures taken of themselves and ate lunch with servicemen and servicewomen. They treated the base as the backdrop to a press conference where they could say things they already thought; nothing was experienced, nothing was learned, nothing sensible was said. Vance, who never left the base, and has never before visited Greenland, was quite sure how Greenlanders should live. He made a political appeal to Greenlanders, none of whom was present, or anywhere near him. He claimed that Denmark was not protecting the security of Greenlanders in the Arctic, and that the United States would. Greenland should therefore join the United States.

When Vance says that Denmark is not protecting Greenland and the base, he is wishing away generations of cooperation, as well as the NATO alliance itself. Denmark was a founding member of NATO, and it is already American’s job to defend Denmark and Greenland, just as it is Denmark’s job (as with other members) to defend the United States. Americans might chuckle at that idea, but such arrogance is unwarranted. We are the only ones ever to have invoked Article 5, the mutual defense obligation of the NATO treaty, after 9/11; and our European allies did respond. Per capita more Danish soldiers were killed in the Afghan war than were American soldiers. Do we remember them? Thank them?

In Greenland what we saw was American imperialism with no clothes. Naked and vain.

[political-us]

“Our service members go wherever they need to in order to bravely serve our country — and because President Trump’s extremist Supreme Court overturned Roe, where they and their families are stationed quite literally dictates their access to critical reproductive care,”

“Now, Trump is turning his back on our servicemembers — and our servicewomen in particular — to score political points. It’s shameful, and will only make our troops and our nation less safe.”

- US Senator Elizabeth Warren

[foolscapper]

Saint Joan of Arc, Patroness of Servicewomen

Feast Day: May 30th

From the SAINTS FOR GIRLS STICKER BOOK

[labyrinthofstreams]

"The first five African-American servicewomen of the American Red Cross to arrive in Britain during World War II, October 1942.

They are in the UK to run the American Red Cross Club on Great George Street - a club for black servicemen only, and the first of its kind in Britain."

L-R: Sydney Taylor Brown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Henrine Ward of Chicago, Illinois; Carol Jarett of Denver, Colorado; Magnolia Latimer of Atlanta, Georgia; and Gladys Edward Martin of Topeka, Kansas.

Photographed by Gerti Deutsch.

[mariacallous]

“No one would allow that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit of his office.” Hans Christian Andersen, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

Musk-Trump inherited a state with unprecedented power and functionality, and are taking it apart. They also inherited a set of alliances and relationships that underpinned the largest economy in world history. This too they are breaking.

The American vice-president, JD Vance, visited an American base Greenland for three hours yesterday, along with his wife. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and his wife also came along. Fresh from illegally using an unsafe social media platform to carry out an entirely unnecessary group chat in which they leaked sensitive data about an ongoing military attack to a reporter, Waltz and Vance perhaps hoped to change the subject by tagging along on a trip which was initially billed as Vance’s wife watching a dogsled race.

The overall context was Donald Trump’s persistent claim that America must take Greenland, which is an autonomous region of Denmark. The original plan had been that Usha Vance would visit Greenlanders, apparently on the logic that the Second Lady would be an effective animatrice of colonial subjection; but none of them wanted to see her, and Greenland’s businesses refused to serve as a backdrop to photo ops or even to serve the uninvited Americans. So instead the American couples all made a very quick visit to Pituffik Space Base. (Pete Hegseth, another group chatter, stayed home; but his wife was in the news as well, as an unorthodox participant in sensitive military discussions.)

At the base, in the far north of the island, the American visitors had pictures taken of themselves and ate lunch with servicemen and servicewomen. They treated the base as the backdrop to a press conference where they could say things they already thought; nothing was experienced, nothing was learned, nothing sensible was said. Vance, who never left the base, and has never before visited Greenland, was quite sure how Greenlanders should live. He made a political appeal to Greenlanders, none of whom was present, or anywhere near him. He claimed that Denmark was not protecting the security of Greenlanders in the Arctic, and that the United States would. Greenland should therefore join the United States.

It takes some patience to unwind all of the nonsense here.

[senka-mesecine]

Not to be weird and i don’t know if this has been asked or not (this is just a suggestion please ignore this if you’re uncomfortable)

but thoughts on a fic on Barnes with a breeding kink? Or just deliberately not pulling out/trying to get the reader pregnant

I feel like he wouldn’t be above it knowing him, and his methods are semi-depraved under the guise of “Barnes knows best”

Barnes Knows Best.

Robert Barnes x Reader.

---

wonderful gif by @woman-with-no-name

---

It was fucked up.

Truly, it was.

Then again, was it really?

On the grand scale of screwed up, to him, this was on the mildly mediocre side.

He'd even say it was a pleasure.

Barnes, he always figured, if he doesn't do this to you some other stupid, simple cocksucker with a hard-on inevitably would --- it was just the reality of life to him; if he doesn't knock up the pretty little thing someone else just might, perhaps not tomorrow, not in a week, a month, maybe not even in years, which might truly be the shocker of all shockers, but the facts of being alive were always the same to him --- existence comes at you fast and death is always looming. You either take your chance or you miss it and lose every right to go 'round complainin'. And the concept of fucking rubber? As useful as the protective pin of a grenade because he didn't subscribe to being careless and stupid, except, with you. With you, he specifically wanted casualties. He pondered this long enough. Just not long enough to be considered an indecisive slacker pussyfootin' around instead of acting.

Shit needed to be done.

-"You hear the news, Sarge?"-

Bunny interrupts his train of thoughts handing him a cigarette and walking side by side with him accompanied by Red ever present with a zippo there to light said tobacco. They were like the nail and the hammer in that regard. One looming on each side of his shoulders. -"Some nurse up at 24th Infantry been barebacking it and going titty up with half the platoon."- Bunny snorts and his face flares up in the most lascivious expression Barnes has seen on him yet; reminded him of a hungry rodent eager to chew through a concrete wall, but his attention's silently piqued as he pushed the lit Marlboro between his lips. Barnes never had the tendency to show he was carefully listening, but he always was. The topic of discussion was almost fucking prophetic. Conveniently well-timed. As if everything was coming together to stir him in the direction he was already stirring himself anyway; the cogs of the machine turning, well-oiled and immaculate. -"Caused a whole riot with the head honchos 'cos nobody could keep track of who's been porking who at base camp."- Bunny continues as they strolled together and the kid was all smiles and resentment, fully engrossed into the story, like he wishes he was there himself. If Barnes's thoughts were merely germinating in the back of his mind, now, they were taking form, ever clearer, ever nearer. People were doing this. Was as common as fragging, Barnes noted privately. If someone liked someone, they'd single them out and knock them the fuck up. Ship them back home and have a secured, done deal on their hands. A marriage before a marriage. Nature's way of getting hitched. -"Now the bitch's ballooned up. And everyone's the padre. Can you believe, man?"- Audible bitterness and green-faced envy soaks the pores of Bunny's words and while Barnes figured rumors tended to be overexaggerated travelling from one mouth to the other and that the 24th wasn't quite literally having an orgy in the middle of the Cambodian wilderness and balls deep in enemy territory; but, still the fact that an unprecedented accident happened in the form of a pregnancy among servicewomen was a proof that it could be done.

Done and gotten away with.

Sure. He knew that.

Getting confirmation of the obvious, though. It was like scratching an itch.

-"Uh, Bun, Bob doesn't wanna hear that filthy crap, do you, Bob, eh? Sure you don't. Nah-uh."-

Red interjects nervously on his behalf once he, undoubtedly, catches the blank, distant look on his face accompanied by the lack of words, wrongfully deducing it as a sign of disinterest or some sort of subdued offense taken --- Barnes wasn't disinterested. Wasn't offended either. Far from. He was simply taking in the intel and letting the source of the information run its mouth, spilling the beans all on his own. Processing it in quiet and enjoying a smoke. Finding it internally amusing that O'Neill was anxiously concerned with protecting the chastity of his ears of all people. It was the Catholic in Red, he supposed; he couldn't help himself. And yes. Barnes, he wanted to hear that filthy crap Bun was spewing. If he didn't, he would've walked away wordlessly by now. Imagined you right in the midst of it. Unshared with anyone, sole difference being.

Only his.

-"Yeah, right, morality police; Wish that was me."-

Bunny sighs with a retort, almost wistfully, cigarette hanging askew in his mouth, the accumulated ashy residue at the tip long enough to poke someone's eye out, ignoring all attempts to dissuade him from chewing over rumors like a schoolgirl. Kid was antsy. Like he was itching for it just through relaying the anecdote itself. -"Those assholes up there get all the fresh action and we just get fuckin' mosquitos."- He bats his hand, pointing his nose at a vague direction, chasing away an invisible buzzing insect at that point, a tuned out gesture; Barnes's gaze is far and away, pinpointed to the other side of base camp, catching your lone form hauling a small crate of provisions engulfed in the curtain of his smoke. There you were. He could always find you like a crosshair finds its target.

If he doesn't do it now, someone else would. Sometime. Somewhere.

That very evening, his allotted package of rubbers gets thrown in the shit-filled latrine where it belonged along with your bullshit novelty of a hindrance known as the pill.

He pisses over both.

---

-"I worry because I can't find them anywhere."-

You complain and he listens. He listens patiently.

Barnes feels like a thief trying to hear out a victim who's purse he's just stolen.

The part were guilt should've been stored stands empty.

-"I looked and I looked and I looked!"- You continue as he lays sprawled out behind you, boots on the bunk, gaze fixated on the edge of your shoulder, on his third cigarette and his zipper up after action. He'd just let you talk. Let it all out. Not like it would change anything. His mind was made up. -"And I understand it's not a top priority, as far away as we are from everything."- You briefly turn around to throw a glance at him; a gesture he returns from under his lashes. Yeah. Far away enough where only the basest of necessities would be coming in. No fancy stuff. You knew that. He knew that. -"We need canned food, we need bandages, we need tetanus shots, equipment, vaccines --- nobody high up's gonna tear out their own hair providing me with contraception pills of all things."- You overexplain, ranting, sitting at the edge of the mattress almost like you were trying to rationalize things to him. He lets you have it, taking a long drag out of his cigarette. -"So, I want to, I really do, but I can't."- You add, aggrieved, looking at him after the deed was already done. You look at all of him, like this was the last time you ever would look at him like that. He understood what you meant. Little did you know that your pills were probably shoveled clean along with a pile of excrement by some cherry stationed on shit cleaning duty this morning. Taylor and King. -"We can't keep doing this like this."- You assess, genuinely saddened by the prospect. He can't help but throw his chin out cockily, teasing; not too badly. But, just enough. -"Goin' celibate for the rest of your tour?"- He pokes verbally, only to have you shaking your head in response, turning your face away and staring forward, talking to a nearby wall. You were sensible. You had a right, good head on your shoulders. You were disciplined. Willing to self-sacrifice in the line of duty. Deny yourself. Focus on what mattered. Supposed that's exactly why he wanted you for keeps. -"I don't know. I'm not sure. Maybe. Nothing else comes to mind."- You whisper. Was that you being crestfallen that you couldn't let him actively fuck you?

He half grins, briefly, for a split second.

-"Doin' it the way it's been done since them olden days."-

He finally decides to speak up, making a suggestion.

-"By pullin' out."-

He cocks his head, amused, even though Barnes knew nothing in his tone showcased that. He was being dead serious. He was also lying. Pull out? Like he was ever gonna.

-"It's a risk."- You interject tenderly.

Yeah, it was a risk for that broad stationed in the 24th too. Shipped back home.

Once he says nothing, you try again, repeating yourself.

This time with more conviction.

His face is close.

Close enough for your nose to brush against his as your turn your head again.

-"It's a ri ---"- You're cut off once you find his eyes inches away from yours.

It's child's play to have you underneath him just like it's child's play to finish inside of you once he's done even though the topic of conversation was just that; that you couldn't. Once round two's done and you're angrily buttoning up your fatigues, you turn back, all ire, standing up in a haste. -"I told you it's a risk!"- You warn, steeped in prudence and anger. -"We can't forget ourselves like that!"- You remind fervently, stomping away, parts of him still warm and inside of you. Barnes props his arm underneath his head like a pillow rest, allowing himself to feel like the cat who just got the cream after a one sided lover's quarrel. Implying he forgot himself? That he ever forgets himself? That it wasn't all deliberate? He finished twice inside of you in one day. He makes a mental note on that like he would of yet another fresh corpse on a long kill list.

---

Next time he corners you for a tryst he expects resistance.

He predicts it, in fact.

Counts on it.

Your curt -"No."- and the placement of your open palm against his chest as an attempt to fend him off only serves as an incentifier as he looks down, assessing your hand on him. Barnes says nothing, his fingers lodged in your pussy. He halts for a moment, already knowing what you'll say to him and already knowing what he'll do in spite of that. The machine had to keep turning. -"No further than that. Please."- You murmur, pleading, squinting your eyes to recover some semblance of sanity by the looks of you, head leaning back against the wall he was about to fuck you up against. The whole platoon knew. He wanted them to know. Usually, when they saw him walk off somewhere and get delayed they understood well enough that Barnes's things, which you were included in, were Barnes's problem and that it was best not to inquire after him or act nosey. -"We already had this conversation."- You breathe out, reminding him softly, looking off, your legs spread around his. The pressure of his chest moving forward towards yours is enough to squeeze your hand out of the way. His fingers are on his belt buckle. He was going in for the kill. You shove again, your eyes wide. Still not enough to cause him to budge, but it's entertaining enough somehow, privately, deep down. -"Are you trying to knock me up or something, c'mon."- You begrudge, perplexed and Barnes has to stick his chin out a again; he always tended to whenever you hit the nail right on the head, especially when you did it a tad too late. -"Me 'n my favorite long time gal? Can't see how it's half bad."- He taunts, tilting his head and then it seems to dawn on you, crystal clear that he wasn't fucking around or playin' games. He really meant to do this. As if you somehow didn't know him well enough by now. As if you didn't know that he never joked around with anything. It seemed like it took him holding his cock in his hand for you to finally get it. -"No, I ---"- You stutter, shaking your head and that's about when he's had enough, using one free hand to grab you by the jaw, squeezing your cheeks, your mouth puckering up like a balloon about to pop.

-"You're in a mighty want to get blown up out here!? Hmm!?"-

Barnes gets close, face to face, practically feeling himself growl.

-"Wanna get stuffed in a body bag and shipped back in pieces!? Lookin' for trouble!? Got a death wish!?"-

He asks vigorously, gruffly, his fingers digging into your face certain to bruises and the imprint of his grip behind, unable to deny that he relished the look of cold shock slowly sinking into your eyes and leaving its residue etched all over your stunned expression. These weren't the boy scouts. This was Vietnam. If anything, he was doing you a rare, unprecedented favor if he were to knock you the fuck up and have you on the first chopper out of country. He could even say it was devotion. Fuck it. Love.

-"I look away for a second one day and I shit you not, I'll find your hide on one tree and your ass on the next! Is that what you're wantin'!?"-

He practically spits his words, angry, pissed the fuck off, as sharp as a blade. God knows that if something were to happen to your dumb, stupid numbskull he would set this country on fire singlehandedly, all court martials and military justice be a and ensure the fire through the jungles burns as far as Laos. Scorched earth. Scorched earth for the very lot of them. Why did it matter if the whole world went to shit then? It was all shit anyhow. Just infinitely and decidedly less shit with you in it.

-"I won't die, Robert."-

You reassure feebly, muffled, mouth as puckered as a fish on dryland, speaking against the vice of his hand. There you were, makin' promises impossible to keep for any person alive and breathing. You were a sitting duck just through being here. The weakest link of this platoon. Sure you were going to die and the only reason you didn't so far is because he tried his darndest to ensure that you wouldn't, but it's like someone took a dull knife and carved a chasm inside of his skull where he could've easily stored every doubt and bolt of rage every time you were out of his sights for two seconds longer than he would've liked and it's like every nervous ending was there vibrating out that you went and got yourself killed when he wasn't actively looking.

-"Bullshit and you know it! Everybody dies!"-

Barnes seethes through gritted teeth, letting go of you sharply and abruptly.

Your head tumbles back against the wall.

You weren't gonna die? Were you somehow an exception to sumn'?

Cock still in hand and his ire hot enough to be inherently rousing, he tears your trousers down until they're pooled around your knees. At this point he didn't even care if someone saw. Fact is, he prefered it. -"You want me out of here."- You gasp, all breath and parted lips once your thighs are naked, on display. Some foreplay this was; arguing like this. Him manipulating you by telling you the truth of things upfront. He was certain to make you tell his children about this one day. How they came into this world. The thought alone makes him see red. The needy, crazed, frenzy-filled type. Just like he did whenever violence was afoot, he starts licking the inside of his own cheek. He could get used to this. He could do this repeatedly and he didn't even start yet.-"Goddamn right I want'ya outta here and you're a daydreamer if you're thinkin' I ain' correct!"- He points his thumb at his own chest, pushing his knee between your legs. You weren't about to turn crusader on him, were you, like damn 'Lias? Like Taylor? Like the rest of them waterwalkers? He wasn't going to allow that. -"Spread 'em."- He orders firmly, no nonsense and you obey, however stiffly, wordlessly, without an argument for once, maintaining your stance against the rear wall of the barracks. Listening. This out here was a man's world and it was time for you to return to your own, save yourself and raise him some children. His thumb finds you and spread you, stumbling upon your wetness; well oiled and ready to go. He raises the index finger of his other hand in front of your still face, warning. So you'd understand. Barnes didn't want this to be the only occasion he did this shit. He'd rotate back with the explicit purpose of fucking you if he had to. He could almost visualize Bunny spreading rumors about that and getting engrossed again --- Red pretendin' he ain'. It taking one look from him to silence them both. He's inside of you and you writhe and moan. It ought to have been like this. Right from the start. -"And next time I come see you I'll be doin' this again so you stay outta here too."- He vigorously, decidedly guarantees with a promise to end all promises, lodged inside of you.

He knew best.

[barb-alayna-artstuff]

A Little Something For The Troops…

FYI - We’ll be thanking several lucky Servicemen AND Servicewomen individually… So Please be patient… we’re trying to get to as many of you as possible before the MP’s show up…

* And NO… we are not going to be thanking any MPs…

** OK… maybe a few…

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The Imperialism Has no Clothes

JD Vance in Greenland

Timothy Snyder

Mar 29, 2025

“No one would allow that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit of his office.” Hans Christian Andersen, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

Musk-Trump inherited a state with unprecedented power and functionality, and are taking it apart. They also inherited a set of alliances and relationships that underpinned the largest economy in world history. This too they are breaking.

The American vice-president, JD Vance, visited an American base Greenland for three hours yesterday, along with his wife. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and his wife also came along. Fresh from illegally using an unsafe social media platform to carry out an entirely unnecessary group chat in which they leaked sensitive data about an ongoing military attack to a reporter, Waltz and Vance perhaps hoped to change the subject by tagging along on a trip which was initially billed as Vance’s wife watching a dogsled race.

The overall context was Donald Trump’s persistent claim that America must take Greenland, which is an autonomous region of Denmark. The original plan had been that Usha Vance would visit Greenlanders, apparently on the logic that the Second Lady would be an effective animatrice of colonial subjection; but none of them wanted to see her, and Greenland’s businesses refused to serve as a backdrop to photo ops or even to serve the uninvited Americans. So instead the American couples all made a very quick visit to Pituffik Space Base. (Pete Hegseth, another group chatter, stayed home; but his wife was in the news as well, as an unorthodox participant in sensitive military discussions.)

At the base, in the far north of the island, the American visitors had pictures taken of themselves and ate lunch with servicemen and servicewomen. They treated the base as the backdrop to a press conference where they could say things they already thought; nothing was experienced, nothing was learned, nothing sensible was said. Vance, who never left the base, and has never before visited Greenland, was quite sure how Greenlanders should live. He made a political appeal to Greenlanders, none of whom was present, or anywhere near him. He claimed that Denmark was not protecting the security of Greenlanders in the Arctic, and that the United States would. Greenland should therefore join the United States.

It takes some patience to unwind all of the nonsense here.

[Timothy Snyder :: link]

[theworldofwars]

Servicewomen from the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) carry their tinned rations in German helmets at Etaples, 26 April 1918.

[misfitwashere]

TIMOTHY SNYDER

MAR 29 READ IN APP

“No one would allow that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit of his office.” Hans Christian Andersen, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

Musk-Trump inherited a state with unprecedented power and functionality, and are taking it apart. They also inherited a set of alliances and relationships that underpinned the largest economy in world history. This too they are breaking.

The American vice-president, JD Vance, visited an American base Greenland for three hours yesterday, along with his wife. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and his wife also came along. Fresh from illegally using an unsafe social media platform to carry out an entirely unnecessary group chat in which they leaked sensitive data about an ongoing military attack to a reporter, Waltz and Vance perhaps hoped to change the subject by tagging along on a trip which was initially billed as Vance’s wife watching a dogsled race. 

The overall context was Donald Trump’s persistent claim that America must take Greenland, which is an autonomous region of Denmark. The original plan had been that Usha Vance would visit Greenlanders, apparently on the logic that the Second Lady would be an effective animatrice of colonial subjection; but none of them wanted to see her, and Greenland’s businesses refused to serve as a backdrop to photo ops or even to serve the uninvited Americans. So instead the American couples all made a very quick visit to Pituffik Space Base. (Pete Hegseth, another group chatter, stayed home; but his wife was in the news as well, as an unorthodox participant in sensitive military discussions.)

At the base, in the far north of the island, the American visitors had pictures taken of themselves and ate lunch with servicemen and servicewomen. They treated the base as the backdrop to a press conference where they could say things they already thought; nothing was experienced, nothing was learned, nothing sensible was said. Vance, who never left the base, and has never before visited Greenland, was quite sure how Greenlanders should live. He made a political appeal to Greenlanders, none of whom was present, or anywhere near him. He claimed that Denmark was not protecting the security of Greenlanders in the Arctic, and that the United States would. Greenland should therefore join the United States.

It takes some patience to unwind all of the nonsense here. 

The base at Pituffik (formerly Thule) only exists because Denmark permitted the United States to build it at a sensitive time. It has served the United States for decades as a central part of its nuclear armory and then as an early-warning system against Soviet and then Russian nuclear attack. 

When Vance says that Denmark is not protecting Greenland and the base, he is wishing away generations of cooperation, as well as the NATO alliance itself. Denmark was a founding member of NATO, and it is already American’s job to defend Denmark and Greenland, just as it is Denmark’s job (as with other members) to defend the United States. 

Americans might chuckle at that idea, but such arrogance is unwarranted. We are the only ones ever to have invoked Article 5, the mutual defense obligation of the NATO treaty, after 9/11; and our European allies did respond. Per capita more Danish soldiers were killed in the Afghan war than were American soldiers. Do we remember them? Thank them?

The threat in the Arctic invoked by Vance is Russia; and of course defending against a Russian attack is the NATO mission. But right now the United States is supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine. No one is doing more to contain the Russian threat than Ukraine. Indeed, Ukraine is in effect fulfilling the entire NATO mission, right now, by absorbing a huge Russian attack. But Vance opposes helping Ukraine, spreads Russian propaganda about Ukraine, and is best known for yelling at Ukraine’s president in the Oval Office. On the base, Vance blamed the killing in Ukraine on Biden rather than on Putin, which is grotesque. Vance claimed that there is now an energy cease-fire in place between Russia and Ukraine; in fact, Russia violated it immediately. Russia is now preparing a massive spring offensive against Ukraine; the response of Musk-Trump has been to ignore this larger reality completely while allowing Biden-era aid to Ukraine to come to an end. Denmark meanwhile has given more than four times as much aid to Ukraine, per capita, as does the United States. 

Greenland, Denmark, and the United States have been enmeshed in complex and effective security arrangements, touching on the gravest scenarios, for the better part of a century. Arctic security, an issue discovered by Trump and Vance very recently, was a preoccuption for decades during and after the cold war. There are only a couple hundred Americans at Pituffik where once there were ten thousand; there is only that one US base on the island where once there were a dozen; but that is American policy, not Denmark’s fault.

We really do have a problem taking responsibility. The United States has fallen well behind its allies and its rivals in the Arctic, in part because members of Vance’s political party denied for decades the reality of global warming, which has made it hard for the U.S. Navy to persuade Congress of the need to commission icebreakers. The United States only has two functional arctic icebreakers; the Biden administration was intending to cooperate with Canada, which has some, and with Finland, which builds lots, in order to compete with Russia, which has the most. That common plan would have allowed the United States to surpass Russia in icebreaking capacity. This is one of countless examples of how cooperation with NATO allies benefits the United States. It is not clear what will happen with that arrangement now that Trump and Vance define Canada, like Denmark, as a rival or even as an enemy. Presumably it will break down, leaving Russia dominant.

As with everything Musk-Trump does, however, the cui bono question about imperialism in Greenland is easy to answer: Russia benefits. Putin cannot contain his delight with American imperialism over Greenland. In generating artificial crises in relations with both Denmark and Canada, America’s two closest allies these last eighty years, the Trump people cut America loose from security gains and create a chaos in which Russia benefits. 

The American imperialism directed towards Denmark and Canada is not just morally wrong. It is strategically disastrous. The United States has nothing to gain from it, and much to lose. There is nothing that Americans cannot get from Denmark or Canada through alliance. The very existence of the base at Pituffik shows that. Within the atmosphere of friendship that has prevailed the last eighty years, all of the mineral resources of Canada and Greenland can be traded for on good terms, or for that matter explored by American companies. The only way to put all of this easy access in doubt was to follow the course that Musk-Trump have chosen: trade wars with Canada and Europe, and the threat of actual wars and annexations. Musk-Trump are creating the bloodily moronic situation in which the United States will have to fight wars to get the things that, just a few weeks ago, were there for the asking. And of course wars rarely turn out the way one expects. 

Much effort is spent trying to extract a doctrine from all this. But there is none. It is just senselessness that benefits America’s enemies. Hans Christian Andersen told the unforgettable tale of the naked emperor. In Greenland what we saw was American imperialism with no clothes. Naked and vain.

As a parting shot, Vance told Greenlanders that life with the United States would be better than with Denmark. Danish officials have been too diplomatic to answer directly the insults directed at them from their own territory during an uninvited visit by imperialist hotheads. Let me though just note a few possible replies, off the top of my head. The comparison between life in the United States and life in Denmark is not just polemical. Musk-Trump treat Europe as though it were some decadent abyss, and propose that alliances with dictatorships would somehow be better. But Europe is not only home to our traditional allies; it is an enviable zone of democracy, wealth and prosperity with which it benefits us to have good relations, and from which we can sometimes learn.

So consider. The US is is 24th in the world in the happiness rankings. Not bad. But Denmark is number two (after Finland). On a scale of 1 to 100, Freedom House ranks Denmark 97 and the US 84 on freedom — and the US will drop a great deal this year. An American is about ten times more likely to be incarcerated than a Dane. Danes have access to universal and essentially free health care; Americans spend a huge amount of money to be sick more often and to be treated worse when they are. Danes on average live four years longer than Americans. In Denmark university education is free; the average balance owed by the tens of millions of Americans who hold student debt in the US is about $40,000. Danish parents share a year of paid parental leave. In the US, one parent might get twelve weeks of unpaid leave. Denmark has children’s story writer Hans Christian Andersen. The US has children’s story writer JD Vance. American children are about twice as likely as Danish children to die before the age of five.

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

The Duchess of Cambridge, alongside the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, hosted a Party at the Palace for the children and families of deceased servicemen and servicewomen | May 13 2017

[godlovesdykes]

the biggest hurdle in our relationship, i think, is that i am devotedly pacifist (and have become even more so over the past year), while she grew up wanting to join the military because that was her option as a butch in the country. and it scares me to hear her say that she’d join to protect me if there was a war. i wouldn’t want to be protected. i believe that each human is god’s image and that taking any human life for any reason is wrong. i know that it’s a privilege to be in a peaceful country where i can believe that easily but i really do think i would keep those beliefs under fire. god has called me to radical, foolish forgiveness in my own life and my politics are forever affected by it.

so when she says that the soldiers who went to iraq and afghanistan did it to help the little guy, i think of abu ghraib. and when she says she wanted to join up i think of the sexual assault statistics for servicewomen. and it scares me to think my lover could point a gun.

[sussex-newswire]

"Prince Harry shared meaningful connections with students in Canada as he helped them learn more about the Invictus Games.

"During a visit to Seaforth Armoury in Vancouver on Nov. 18, Prince Harry, 40, spoke with students about the 1875 poem 'Invictus' by William Ernest Henley — the poem that inspired the name of the Invictus Games, which Harry founded in 2014 as a multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and servicewomen, both those still serving and veterans.

"'How many of you have felt struggles yourself and had to deal with it yourself without the help of family and friends?' he said.

"He added, 'It’s important to know that when things get so hard, there’s always a way back.'

[therealslimshakespeare]

That is how I see both of these things existing together. No one is a total island and if having friends back up your decisions makes you less of a girl boss than we should all retire.

Yes ok this makes sense! For me, I was also worried when I read the original ask about Maureen cause it was sort of giving one person swooping in and playing the hero 😅 And I’m just not the biggest fan of that in these sorts of situations cause I sort of was invested in this plot for Lu since this is her big moment where she falls apart

Fully agreed! It’s a genuine pet peeve of mine as well, in fact, in plots like these!

If I were to write this whole arc out, it would have its penultimate crescendo being Lu kicking him to the curb and her victory in that. That’s curtain call, end of chapter and story. Then, for the other, it’s a blurb or portion of a story that takes place later and is far more of a buddy cop sorta postwar shenagins between these ex servicewomen in the cause of someone they love and against someone who has it coming