Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon has developed plans to take over Greenland and Panama by force if necessary but refused to answer repeated questions during a hotly combative congressional hearing Thursday about his use of Signal chats to discuss military operations.

Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee repeatedly got into heated exchanges with Hegseth, with some of the toughest lines of questioning coming from military veterans as many demanded yes or no answers and he tried to avoid direct responses about his actions as Pentagon chief.

In one back-and-forth, Hegseth did provide an eyebrow-raising answer. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., asked whether the Pentagon has plans to take Greenland or Panama by force if necessary.

  • billwashere@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    What the fuck?!? Why do these nazi’s have such a hard on for Greenland?

    I mean I understand that with the melting ice, there are strategic shipping lanes and some rare elements that you’d get with Greenland but for fucks sake we can’t just take it because it’s the new hotness.

    • pleasegoaway@lemm.ee
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      22 hours ago

      It all ALWAYS just boils down to MONEY and resources.

      Capitalism requires constant, unnecessary growth. Maybe Greenland has resources that could support US’s unregulated, unrestrained capitalism.

      And control of Panama controls trade routes and hidden offshore money laundering.

      That’s it. That’s why. Money. The ultra elite wealthy NEED THIS.

    • CircaV@lemmy.ca
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      17 hours ago

      The billionaires want the island of Greenland for their climate change bunkers

  • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Seriously? Invade Greenland? Who’s going to even allow that. The Whitehouse can’t just declare war without provocation.

    It would literally take an act of congress to ratify such an act.

    • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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      15 hours ago

      Did you miss the news? The US is a kingdom again. Trump can do whatever he wants.

  • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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    19 hours ago

    …Honestly, it would be best if Fascist America attacked Greenland, Canada, Mexico, and California simultaneously. That kind of malicious action would almost certain get the Trump Regime’s dick stuck into a hornet’s nest.

    Not saying it should happen. But if the regime is dead set on attacking Greenland, it should be in the stupidest way possible.

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The Pentagon has contingency plans for every situation they can imagine. This is not news so much as it’s just another example of Hesgeth being a fucking moron. They have plans to invade everywhere, they have contingency plans to counterattack against a Canadian invasion for fuck sake. They have these plans because if a situation arises, you don’t have the time to be cooking up new plans. Hesgeth acting like this is actually a plan that’s being considered it just another example of why he’s not fit to manage a godamn Mcdonalds, much less anything important.

  • nthavoc@lemmy.today
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    22 hours ago

    The only silver lining is that he will text all the strategies out to the world so everyone has a heads up of where to be or not to be.

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    2 days ago

    To be clear, the Pentagon has dusty filing cabinets full of playbooks and wargaming scenarios ranging from plausible to outrageous that various think tanks have cooked up over the years. There is almost certainly a plan to fight an extraterrestrial invasion. I recall one being made about a zombie outbreak during that pop culture craze. We’ve had plans to invade Canada and Mexico wholesale for decades at least. Their existence doesn’t inherently mean that anyone at the Pentagon takes the possibility of the scenario seriously. They’re thought exercises as much as they are preparation for the unlikely.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Machiavelli had some useful points.

        like the whole, “if you rule through fear to keep people in line, they’ll take your head off the moment you’re weak” observation.

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            oh. he was a total asshole. But even he respected the need for representation and to constrain the elites from doing shit. At least, he was later on. (See Discourse on Livy)

            I’m just saying, assholes like trump being all Machiavellian seem to forget the whole “we know how behead” aspect of being an assholish monarch.

              • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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                1 day ago

                One interpretation is that he was commissioned to write a bland moral guide for a young prince, but got all satirical and close to the bone.

                • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  Machiavelli wanted a Republic, another inyerpretation is he put in a bunch of bad advice in the hopes of them taking it and being overthrown.

        • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          This part’s interesting

          Mary Dietz, in her essay “Trapping The Prince”, writes that Machiavelli’s agenda was not to be satirical, as Rousseau had argued, but instead was “offering carefully crafted advice (such as arming the people) designed to undo the ruler if taken seriously and followed.”[83] By this account, the aim was to reestablish the republic in Florence. She focuses on three categories in which Machiavelli gives paradoxical advice:

          He discourages liberality and favors deceit to guarantee support from the people. Yet Machiavelli is keenly aware of the fact that an earlier pro-republican coup had been thwarted by the people’s inaction that itself stemmed from the prince’s liberality.

          He supports arming the people despite the fact that he knows the Florentines are decidedly pro-democratic and would oppose the prince.

          He encourages the prince to live in the city he conquers. This opposes the Medici’s habitual policy of living outside the city. It also makes it easier for rebels or a civilian militia to attack and overthrow the prince.

    • wagesj45@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      Agreed. I think we only need to really worry when they make their way up the pile and the dust is brushed off. Are we there yet? I dunno. Maybe? The existence of the plan isn’t the issue, though.

  • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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    2 days ago

    Greenland isn’t a particularly hard place to conquer. It’s a tiny population and we literally already have military there. The challenge isn’t tactical, it’s diplomatic. It’d be a lot more meaningful to ask whether we have contingencies for war with Europe or losing all our bases there.

  • Zenith@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Or is he just saying that so we’ll talk about that not his signal chat?

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    If we invade Greenland, I vow to do what I can to not die an American citizen.

    I’d be ashamed to be buried here at this point already.

  • Billiam@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    “Contingent” on what, Kegsbreath?

    Greenland making fun of Trump?

    Denmark still refusing to “sell” it?

    Trumpy needing yet another distraction from some stupid shit he’s doing he wants to hide?

    You getting cranky from the DTs?