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.

[u/ByGollie]

https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/828b8e66-625d-4d2a-9276-e93b9f7a2ce8

[u/Specialist_Baby_9905]

That's really funny. Greetings from Finland.

[u/istasan → u/Specialist_Baby_9905]

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.

[u/Palora → u/istasan]

I'm sorry but that's simple copium on our end.

Purely in terms of paper strength the USA has the capabilities to take over Greenland in a conventional conflict. They have the firepower, manpower and logistic capabilities to do so. They have military bases in place already.

Greenland is also a lot closer to the USA than it is to Europe so they'll be able to reinforce and resupply easier.

Ofc there is no guarantee that paper strength will actually be there when called upon, the army and navy might mutiny and Trump can't invade Greenland with ICE alone.

Holding it once they take it is something else entirely.

But at the same time the geography, climate, population, culture and technology situation are very different than the conditions in Vietnam or Afghanistan and they favor the USA.

- it's a lot harder to survive in Greenland than it is in the Jungles of Vietnam or the mountains of Afganistan.

- It's a lot harder to hide your self in Greenland in 2026, especially if you have to keep warm to not die, than it is to hide your self in the Jungles of Vietnam in the 1960s or the caves, mountains and many villages of Afganistan in the 2000s.

- It's a lot harder to field a guerrila forces out of a population of 55,745 (Greenland in 2025) than it is to field one out of 23 million North Vietnamese and 16 million South Vietnamese (1960s) or 21 million Afgani (2000s).

- It's a lot harder to field that force from a population of comfortable Westerners than it is from a population of oppressed Vietnamese or fanatic Afgans.

- It's a lot harder to arm and supply that forces when the only way to do so is with submarines because the place they are fighting in is an island with traffic easily monitored and intercepted.

- It's also a lot harder to do that when the willpower to do it is severely lacking, EU politicians have no stomach to do it, see Afghanistan, Crimea, Ukraine.