Land Grabs
Thomas Jefferson urged peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, but entangling alliances with none.
Are threats of punitive tariffs and territorial conquest the best ways to achieve that goal? Is Jefferson’s desire one Donald Trump even shares?
Picking Fights
That the US would purchase Greenland and reclaim the Panama Canal was initially perceived as typical Trumpian bluster. But the president seems serious.
Denmark’s claim to its oversized iceberg derives from a few Viking landings more than a millennium ago. Yet there’s little love lost between them and the locals. Particularly after some sinister sterilization projects a couple generations back, the natives would probably prefer the Danes take a hike.
Not that they’d want the US to replace them (Americans shouldn’t want that either). But the US military already has bases on the island (shocking!), so… as with Germany, Britain, and Japan… the Americans essentially already own the place. Making the conquest official would merely convert Greenland into a polar Puerto Rico… a frozen rathole to waste more of our wealth.
The situation in Panama is a bit different. Americans invented the country, carving it from Colombia to create the canal. Having fomented a rebellion and acquired construction rights from the French, the US government paid Panama for territory on either side of the passage.
The Americans held the corridor almost ninety years, till it was transferred to Panama at the turn of the century. Now, apparently, the gringos want it back.
In some sense, that’s reasonable. They creat
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
