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Comment by barry-cotter | Hacker News Reader

The Faroe Islands have to be dependent on someone because they’re certainly not capable of defending themselves. That someone could be the EU if it had a credible collective military deterrent but it doesn’t and it’s not acquiring one any time soon.

Unless war never returns to Europe in which case I worry needlessly.

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That's funny. I seem to recall from history classes that it was the British that came to the Faroe Island's defense on a previous historic occasion. (For obvious strategic reasons to do with the geographic location in the North Atlantic.) What did the Danish do on that occasion, I wonder? That's right, they surrendered to the Germans. (Understandably, I might add.)

Look, the Faroe Islands do get a lot out of being so intimately tied to to Denmark, but let's not oversell it, OK?

The British weren't defending the Faroes, they were defending themselves.

It's just a question of "someone's going to take it, so we should take it first".. similar to the british and subsequent american occupation of Iceland.

Well, duh. Point remains that Denmark was completely incapable of defending the Faroes and thus a "union" with Denmark is completely absurd if you're going to argue it from a defense perspective (as the OP did).

The Danes couldn’t defend themselves so the Germans took over. The Faroe Islands couldn’t defend themselves so the. Ritual took over. The Icelanders couldn’t defend themselves so the Americans took over. If you can’t defend yourself you’re as sovereign as the powers who could conquer you allow you to be.

> they’re certainly not capable of defending themselves

This is true of most countries in the Caribbean, but being close to a big, heavily armed, friendly world power (as the Faroes are to the UK) is usually sufficient.

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