Politico reports:

As Donald Trump threatens to use the U.S. military to seize Greenland, European officials and diplomats have started quietly airing a previously unsayable thought: What would it look like to fight back?

While a military confrontation between the U.S. and any European force would likely result in one of the shortest wars in history, there are other ways that Greenland’s allies can resist the American president if he refuses to compromise.

Chief among the potential pressure points is the extensive network of military assets in the region, which the U.S. uses, in the jargon of geopolitics, to project American power far from home — in Africa and especially the Middle East.

Why should the U.S. continue to have access to these bases, or receive support from allies’ naval assets, air forces, or even intelligence services, if it tries to take sovereign territory from a NATO member like Denmark?

The question is so sensitive that diplomats are at pains to keep it away from the mainstream debates between governments in the summit rooms of the EU or NATO. But five officials and diplomats confirmed to POLITICO that the highly sensitive topic of how to punch back against Trump is being discussed privately across the continent.

Aside from Europe’s military assets, the U.S. also relies on Europe as a key trade partner and European governments spend many billions of dollars every year buying American weapons. All of these offer potential leverage if European customers decide to stop shopping in the U.S.

The big risk, some officials say, is that such a blunt challenge would rapidly escalate into a full-blown rupture in the transatlantic relationship. Others argue that the alliance is increasingly toxic under Trump and that Europe needs to move on. [Continue reading…]