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Comment by petcat | Hacker News Reader

I don't care about Greenland one way or another, but I find it funny that the Europeans are so visibly upset about this when the Danish took the territory without permission themselves and are now crying that an even bigger thief might want to come take it from them.

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This is 1814 we're talking about, right? That's only a decade after Louisiana Purchase just for reference and before the Mexican-American war. I guess we might as well give all that back to the Mexicans? You can play this game to the end of time. There's a reason for statute of limitations in law.

1953 is when Denmark asserted complete ownership of the territory and it ceased just being a "colony". That's not exactly ancient history.

So? The US prior to 1776, those specific colonies that became the US, were British colonies, are you claiming before that those colonies weren't considered British?

Britain lost their claim to those colonies when they lost a war to the Americans. The Inuit had no capacity to fight a war with Denmark. So it's the same situation except now Denmark is on the short-end of the power imbalance, and they're upset about it.

I find it a pointless rabbit hole to go down given the timeframe. I guess we disagree. We're not talking about the independence of the indigenous people at this current point in time, we're talking about Denmark relinquishing it by default because they colonized and annexed it imorrally.

Its not the same situation. Greenland has self-rule, and are masters of planning and executing their own independence. They wouldn't have that if swallowed by the US. Its funny how you appear to be miffed about colonialism, while holding outdated views that paints the Greenlanders as poor natives that don't have any self-determination.

I mean if Mexico wants to come up here and invade us to take it back they can try, but it's not going to end well for them.

because the US would be upset about it

Time is a factor. Taking land is what was done in the past. US wanting to do it now is as if Mexico decided to revive slavery and threatend to capture Afroamericans in USA. It's a touchy subject and I think most of US wouldn't be exactly on board with this idea.

Especially since putin shows us exactly what happens if you try.

> Mexico decided to revive slavery and threatend to capture Afroamericans in USA

It's a bad example because the power balance doesn't make sense. I think you will have a hard time coming up with any example where USA would be on the receiving end of something like this.

the power balance isn't relevant. the original commenter said that they find it funny that Europeans get upset about Trump pretending he'd take Greenland. honestly the comment just seems like deliberately triggering 4chan-esque fare with little to no value to it. the power balance is completely irrelevant. it's one territory not happy with another power coveting its territory. how bizarre and unexpected

The power balance is relevant because USA can just take it if they want it. People in Europe will be upset but that isn't going to change the outcome. USA has offered to purchase it many times.

I think ultimately this will end up being resolved with USA getting rights to something like 80% of the resource value and Denmark getting 20% in exchange for getting to keep the title.

the power balance isn't relevant because "the US could just take it" doesn't make it any more surprising that Europeans aren't happy with the idea. Spain could take Gibraltar if they wanted, that doesn't mean it's hilarious that the British aren't happy about the idea

the original commenter quite obviously doesn't find it surprising or funny, they're just anger baiting

Meanwhile they turn a blind eye to Turkey taking Cyprus because they need Turkey on side for the migration crisis and Ukraine.

Everyone operates on self-interest but not everyone is smug about it.

1814 vs 1974? seems a bit of a stretch. See above comment.

TRNC is a separate country with its own laws, even though it is pretty much economically dependent on Turkey.

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