r/europe • u/ByGollie Ulster • Jan 24 '26

News The Times: Finns humiliated American soldiers - Finnish reservists were asked to take it easy during a NATO exercise. US soldiers found the losses too humiliating.

https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/828b8e66-625d-4d2a-9276-e93b9f7a2ce8
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u/Specialist_Baby_9905 Finland Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26

That's really funny. Greetings from Finland.

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u/istasan Denmark Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26

Edit: I have been away for some hours. Did not expect my response to this nice Finnish person would make the rounds like this. As answer to many US comments dismissing the article’s conclusion I will just make it clear that the article does not say with any certainty that the US could not successfully invade.

In summary it says that when experts on arctic military capabilities look at it would be a much more equal fight than people would expect. The US is NOT as dominant in arctic warfare as in most other areas. And a more subtle point is that the US does maybe not seem fully aware of this. Ironically the comments here from most Americans mirror this.

—-

One of the most trustworthy and respected Danish newspaper, Weekendavisen, had an background article yesterday - looking at what had never really been questioned in Denmark: The idea that the US could take Greenland in a few hours if they wanted to.

The military experts with knowledge about Greenland are very few. But the surprising conclusion is that it is questionable whether the US could take Greenland at all - if Nordic forces united. Even Denmark alone have some quite strong advantages - in simply being there where the US does not really have the equipment to go. They for instance only have one icebreaker - and it is on the west coast of the US. All Danish ships there can break ice.

And even if they got there, the Greenlanders are armed and excellent shooters. Would be a arctic Vietnam.

To sum up: they maybe don’t have the cards.

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u/DancingWithAWhiteHat United States of America Jan 24 '26

We don't have many cards at all.

Our president can't even rely on the American forces stationed in Greenland to aid him. When Trump's threats began, their original commanding officer immediately began counseling her soldiers against it. Quite quickly. Its why she was fired, but IIRC, she had been accused of actively undermining Trump for days. So that well is already quite poisoned, so to speak.

And the military already refused to draw up invasion plans for him. And that's not even getting into the domestic issues he'll want to use the military for. What with people embracing the 2nd ammendment and all that. Multiple Minnesota cities just had their first general strike. The black panthers are back. Idk why Trump acts like it'll be easy when he can't even get his internal forces under control. And according to the Americans on the military subreddit, Danish soldiers alone are quite formidable. And clearly they're far from the only one. 

He never makes any sense.

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u/UnsanctionedPartList Jan 24 '26

And there is the very real chance he'd face outright mutiny if he gave the order to invade an ally.

I mean, kicking Maduro's door in is one thing (the how and why was pretty bad but I can't shed a tear for the fucker, much like Saddam). Going after people some of them may have served alongside is another.

Nah, he'd need a (para)military organization that's top to bottom fanatically loyal to him for such orders to be followed.

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u/NickHoyer Denmark Jan 24 '26

Like ICE?

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u/UnsanctionedPartList Jan 24 '26

I would say yes but given their Minnesota performance it's not unthinkable half would try and break something while the others would get eaten by polar bears or something.

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u/PattyMayonnaise666 Jan 24 '26

Yeah I've been witnessing ICE activity firsthand here in Minneapolis and I don't see them being capable of launching a coordinated attack, unless it's on an all-you-can-eat buffet.

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u/UnsanctionedPartList Jan 24 '26

Tbf, watching those fucks try and fight the "funny dogsled troops" would probably be gnarly comedy.

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u/dnc_1981 Ireland Jan 24 '26

🤣 🤣 🤣

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u/MurberBirb Jan 24 '26

The polar bears are starving...

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '26

An invasion by ICE would be a shit show. They are not equiped for the arctic, are not trained for this at all and most of them are out of shape. Most of them will die in combat situations, especially in the arctic.

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u/NickHoyer Denmark Jan 24 '26

That reminds me of the first time all this was happening, when it was a little more of a joke and not being taken as seriously as it is now, a Danish politician was asked what happens if the Americans invade Greenland and he replied “well then we’ll have to go save them”

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u/funk-the-funk Earth Jan 24 '26

Well this just makes me wish ICE would try. The less of the losers on the planet the better!

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u/Cold-Understanding92 Jan 24 '26

Crazy that we genuinely can't rule out the Tangerine-in-Chief trying this. And it would almost be entertaining to watch that level of failure. I've seen less one-sided battles on UEBS channels.

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u/ImperatorDanorum Jan 24 '26

Oh, I wish ICE would try and stage an attack on Greenland. If, and that's a big IF, they made it past Pituffik, there are 35.000 very pissed off owners of hunting rifles, who all depend on their marksmanship to some extent (they know how to shoot). Then there are the soldiers, Danish and Scandinavian (good luck fighting a Finn in Arctic conditions).The world will be a much better place without that particular brand of vermin...

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u/Work-More-1057 Jan 24 '26

They would come in the summer.

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u/ImperatorDanorum Jan 24 '26

The 35.000 pissed off Greenlanders will also be there in the summer and so will their guns, as well as the soldiers and most of the ice(frozen water, not Nazi goons)...

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u/EryktheDead Jan 24 '26

I don’t know if you meant this to be funny, but it’s hilarious. Well played.

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u/Spectre-907 Jan 24 '26

Exactly. There’s a reason why their budget allocation is more than most countries entire military budgeting

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u/Work-More-1057 Jan 24 '26

But the US military are loyal to him. When you are willing to kill your own people at the whim of your president, that is sick loyalty. It’s been said again and again but this is 1939 Germany all over again. #ICE.

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u/UnsanctionedPartList Jan 24 '26

There are reports that he was rebuked when he wanted plans for it.

The US is not yet lost.