Greenland should make 'rogue state' go away

United States politicians have habitually branded nations they dislike as "rogue states", accusing countries that oppose US ambitions of destabilizing behavior while ignoring their own country's egregious transgressions. This hypocrisy is once more in the spotlight with the covetous eye the US has cast on Greenland, where recent remarks by visiting US Vice-President JD Vance laid bare the US administration's imperial arrogance and its dangerous military expansionism across the Arctic region.

Vance's comments during his Greenland visit revealed the ugly truth behind the US' Arctic ambitions. His patronizing declaration that Denmark had "not done a good job by the people of Greenland" and that the territory would be better off under US "protection" demonstrated breathtaking disrespect for the people of Greenland. This condescension was particularly galling given that Greenland already falls under NATO's security umbrella.

The vice-president's fearmongering about Chinese ambitions in Greenland was especially cynical. "We can't just bury our head in the sand — or, in Greenland, bury our head in the snow — and pretend that the Chinese are not interested in this very large landmass," Vance said in his remarks at the US' Pituffik Space Base. This fabricated threat narrative collapses under the slightest scrutiny. China has never tried or threatened to seize Greenland. The same cannot be said of the US, whose president has openly discussed the US acquiring the territory "one way or another".