Greenland and the Pentagon
The Pentagon's Joint Chiefs Are Failing the Greenland Test
The lights are burning late in the E-Ring of the Pentagon tonight, but don’t mistake the activity for preparation. It is the frantic, sweating industry of men trying to figure out how to drape a flag over an impending crime of such sweeping malice, stupidity, and toxicity that it will shame this nation for generations.
The word is out. The “stable genius” has finally moved from the fever swamp of his Social Media feed to the operational reality of the War Room. The order has been cut: The United States of America is to prepare for a kinetic invasion of Greenland. Yes, Greenland. That vast, icy, sovereign territory of Denmark, a founding member of NATO, a nation that has bled beside American GIs from the Korengal Valley to Kandahar.
Because Donald Trump wants the rocks, the ice, and the ego-stroke of a colonial land-grab, he has ordered the most powerful military in human history to become a gang of Arctic marauders
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And here is the terrifying part: the Joint Chiefs of Staff, men who have spent four decades wearing the uniform, men who talk endlessly about “honor,” “integrity,” and the “rules-based international order,” are currently sharpening the knives. They are looking at maps of Nuuk and Thule not as partners, but as targets.
A Strategic Suicide Pact
Let’s be clear: Greenland poses no threat to the United States. It is not a launchpad for terror. It is not harboring WMDs. Neither the Chinese nor the Russians are poised to take it by either guile or force.
It is an autonomous territory of a loyal, democratic ally. By executing this order, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) aren’t just following a “controversial” policy; they are participating in a strategic suicide pact that will dismantle seventy-five years of American alliancess in a single afternoon, giving China a strategic license to invade Taiwan, and Russia one to take Latvia, Lithjuaina, and Estonia, to say nothing of continuing their illegal war against Ukraine.
The moment an American boot hits Greenlandic soil without an invitation, NATO, the most successful military alliance in the history of the world, is dead. Article 5 becomes a cruel joke, a relic of a time when America’s word actually meant something. If the United States can invade its own allies for “strategic depth” or mineral rights, why would any nation in Europe ever trust us again? We are effectively telling the world that the “rules-based order” was just a mask for “might makes right.”
A Banquet for Autocrats
While our generals plot the logistics of an Arctic heist, our true adversaries are watching with a mixture of disbelief and predatory delight.
In Beijing, Xi Jinping is likely raising a glass. For years, the U.S. has lectured China on the sanctity of sovereignty and the “freedom of the seas” in the South China Sea. If the “Leader of the Free World” can annex territory in the North Atlantic because he wants to own the “real estate,” what possible argument does Washington have when the PLA decides to “unify” Taiwan? We are handing China the moral and legal precedent to set not just Taiwan, but the entire Pacific on fire. Every diplomatic lever we hold regarding Taiwan will snap the moment we violate Danish sovereignty.
In Moscow, Vladimir Putin is salivating. He has worked for a quarter-century to fracture the West, and Trump is handing him the pieces on a silver platter. A U.S. invasion of a NATO ally is the ultimate “Go” signal for Russian tanks to roll into Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. If America won’t respect the borders of its friends, why should Russia respect the borders of its “near abroad”? The Baltics, Poland, and the Caucasus will be the menu for the next Russian banquet, and we will have no moral authority to stop it.
The Corruption of the E-Ring
The Joint Chiefs are supposed to be the “sober adults” in the room. Their role is to provide candid, unvarnished military advice—to tell the President not just what he can do, but what he should do, and when an order is a catastrophic violation of our national interest.
But the E-Ring has become a place of quiet complicity. To plan this invasion is to stain the integrity of the entire general officer corps. It turns the professional military into a logistics department for a madman’s real estate ambitions. It tells every young lieutenant and NCO that the “Law of Armed Conflict” is just something we put in PowerPoints to look civilized, but that at the end of the day, we’re a mafia nation, a lawless actor, the biggest bullies on the block.
The moral injury to the force will be catastrophic. How do you look a soldier in the eye and tell them they are fighting for “freedom” while they are occupying a peaceful democratic neighbor? How do you maintain discipline in a force that knows its leadership has abandoned the Constitution for the sake of political convenience?
In studying this issue, I’ve found a resource in Ground News that’s been a great way to test my assumptions, to examine the quality and biases of the various media outlets covering the Greenland issue - and many others - with analytical tools that let me examine the biases of the sources covering the story, the ownership of media outlets, and to see the blindspots we all have in any media coverage.
For instance, Ground News showed me stories about this controversial issue that I hadn’t spotted. One making the rounds in right-wing media highlighted the tensions between Denmark and Greenland over the island’s future independence and governance, over and above the threat of an American hostile takeover. This is an underappreciated angle on this story, but Ground News caught it in their Blindspot Feed.
It also showed me a story I felt really hit the mood in Denmark and Greenland that was more centrist and balanced: “Greenland PM Rejects U.S. Takeover Proposals, Says 'We Choose Denmark.”
Ground News also helps you understand how the power players are using the media in this high-stakes diplomatic game of icy chicken. One story, pumped up by the pro-Trump media, comes from Russian official Dmitry Medvedev, clearly trying to goad Trump into this invasion plan.
We live in a world where the shifting media landscape is opaque and confusing, leading people to feel they can’t analyze the truth of stories without becoming full-time media scholars. More and more media is being snapped up by billionaires as either vanity projects or to curry favor with Washington. Private equity firms are breaking up news outlets for parts.
In a time when people are desperate for clarity, too much news is just noise.
Ground News helps break that confusion, giving me new tools that provide clarity, show me the biases and ownership of media outlets, and call balls and strikes on whether stories are left, right, or straight up the middle. I’m proud to partner with Ground News to offer you the same Vantage Plan I use for 40% off.
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The Moral Rubicon
To the Generals and Admirals currently sitting in The Tank, the fabled JCD conference room in those terrible chairs: this is your moment of destiny. In my day at the Pentagon, it was rather tired…run-down would be putting it mildly.
For years, you’ve told us that the military is apolitical. You’ve told us that your oath is to the Constitution, not to a man. Well, the Constitution doesn’t have a “Warlord Clause.” It doesn’t grant the President the power to turn the Department of Defense into a private buccaneering outfit.
If you go forward with this, if you plan the sorties, if you authorize the sealift, if you brief the “tactical advantages” of seizing Nuuk, if you let JSOC run rogue in planning a SEAL and Delta Operation Winter Wonderland, you are no longer guardians of the Republic. You are men of dishonor. You will be the generation of leaders who traded 250 years of American prestige for the sake of keeping your parking spots at the Pentagon.
You will be remembered not for your service in the Middle East or your stars, but as the lackeys who broke the world because you were too afraid of a mean tweet or a lost pension to say “No.”
The Only Path Left: Resign En Masse
There is only one way to save the soul of the United States military. There is only one way to stop this madness before the first shot is fired. If the Greenland plan is demanded by this White House, the answer is clear:
The Joint Chiefs of Staff must resign. Immediately. En masse.
They must walk out of the building, stand before the cameras, and tell the American people the truth: “The President has issued an unlawful, unconstitutional, and strategically catastrophic order. We cannot and will not execute it. We resign our commissions in defense of the Constitution.”
A single resignation can be ignored. A mass resignation of the nation’s top military leadership is a firebreak. It forces Congress to act. It forces the public to wake up. It tells our allies that the American military still has a conscience, even if the White House does not. It is the only way to signal to Beijing and Moscow that this is a temporary madness of a single man, not a permanent shift in American character.
To the Joint Chiefs: Your legacy isn’t your next promotion or some defense indistay sincecure. You’ve all reached the top of that pyramid. Your legacy now is honor or infamy. Your legacy now is America, or Trump.
What you do in the coming days and hours will be graven in history. Do you want to be the men who defended the flame of liberty, or the men who used it to light the fuse of a global conflagration?
The world is watching. And history, cold, hard, and unforgiving, is already reaching for its pen.
I’ve drafted a memo for you to send to the President, gentlemen. Tweak it all you want, but this is the gist:
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
FROM: The Joint Chiefs of Staff
SUBJECT: Resignation from Active Duty
DATE: 14 January 2026
Mr. President:
We are writing to formally submit our resignations from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, effective immediately. Furthermore, we request voluntary retirement from our respective branches of service, closing careers that average forty years in uniform.
We do not take this step lightly, nor do we take it in a vacuum.
For generations, we have operated under a singular, sacred oath: to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath is not a suggestion; it is the bedrock of our Republic. It requires that the military remain a neutral instrument of national security, guided by lawful orders that serve the interests of the American people and the preservation of our democracy.
Your recent directive to prepare for and execute an unprovoked invasion and annexation of Greenland, a sovereign territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and a foundational NATO ally, is a direct violation of that oath.
This order is not only strategically incoherent; it is fundamentally unlawful. It represents a clear and present danger to the security of the United States for the following reasons:
Violation of International Law: This action constitutes an act of aggression against a peaceful ally, shredding the treaties and international frameworks that have prevented a third World War for eighty years.
Destruction of the NATO Alliance: By targeting a fellow member state, you have effectively dissolved the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, leaving the United States isolated and our European allies vulnerable to immediate predatory expansion by the Russian Federation.
Global Destabilization: This precedent provides a “green light” to our adversaries. We can no longer credibly deter the People’s Republic of China from a forced “unification” with Taiwan, nor can we prevent further Russian incursions into the Baltic States.
Moral Injury to the Force: We cannot, in good conscience, order the men and women of the United States Armed Forces to kill and die for a campaign of territorial aggrandizement that bears no relation to the defense of our nation.
The United States military is not a private militia for the acquisition of real estate. We are the guardians of a set of ideals. When those ideals are discarded by the Commander-in-Chief, the senior military leadership has a final duty to the Constitution: to refuse to be the instruments of its destruction.
The American people deserve a military that reflects their highest values. By fulfilling your order, we would be betraying those values and the safety of future generations. We choose instead to stand down, so that the nation may stand up.
Sincerely,
[Signatures]
This is a stark test for the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs. A failure, based on the coward’s answer of “whoever follows me will be worse,” flies in the face of what we know of the Trump era: no one can “steer the ship” of this President. No one can appeal to his better angels.
Let us pray that the Chiefs are bold men in this moment, that courage overcomes ambition.
They can and must resign if this Greenland folly proceeds.
What a great brave thing to write. How can we amplify — simplify?— this urgent message? A Greenland cold, or family? Saying, we like our life don’t invade us don’t hurt us!”? What would make it real?? Because it’s obvious that the Trump regime has crossed the line into play acting.
I think actually that Trump is just doing what Putin tells him to do.
Brilliant! Trump in effect is also attacking our military. The military has long been the one government agency that has had such high trust and approval from its citizens. It has polled the highest for years in this standing within the US. With the actions it has taken in South America , and should it also allow itself to be used by Trump in Greenland, it will lose all trust, honor and support. It is destroying itself as it destroys Greenland, NATO, and so much more. Trump will have stolen this from us as well.