Ferry range means the maximum range that an aircraft engaged in ferry flying can achieve. This usually means maximum fuel load, optionally with extra fuel tanks and minimum equipment. It refers to the transport of aircraft without any passengers or cargo.
No combat, good thing, because there won’t be any soldiers.
I guess the pilots could just wave their pistols about.
The whole thing is immoral and contrary to national interest on all sides. As for insane and lunatic, I wish I could believe that, but no.
Today, the invasion of Greenland polls terribly in the U.S. (and I’m sure everywhere else). But I fear median U.S. voters would change their minds if conquest was a fait accompli with minimal causalities on all sides – as is likely if Trump goes through with it.
Many Greenlanders would be bitter over the Danes having (wisely) given up quickly. As a result, there would be plenty of quislings to talk on American television about how it had been for the best. All too many Americans would consider the Greenland success to balance out the economic harm of Trump’s tariffs.
You’re assuming there are going to be absolutely no economic consequences for such an act. I don’t see the countries that turned Russia into a pariah state saying “guess it’s business as usual then” and carrying on trading with the US as if it hadn’t just illegally conquered part of an allied nation.
People need to stop with this “NATO will prevent it!” nonsense. Let’s get the facts out here:
The US invading Greenland and possibly Canada will result in a very tense new Cold War, not a shooting war, between Europe and the USA.
Will Trump try to bring about military conscription to provide his fascist, imperialist war machine with vast numbers of personnel to fulfill his dreams of conquest? Would people still resist the draft as before or would they meekly submit? I don’t think there’d be large numbers of people volunteering to be a part of his imperial army of conquest.
The American people would have to draw the line somewhere to stop this fascist, imperialist fool.
LOL, no. The European NATO navies can’t prevent a US expeditionary force from landing in Greenland, but they can prevent a Chinese naval force from getting anywhere near Greenland without breaking a sweat. Aside from Svalbard, there’s no place on earth harder to get to from China than Greenland, and China just doesn’t have force projection capability beyond the South China Sea.
The military has trouble finding enough recruits that meet physical and aptitude requirements as it is. A considerable chunk of today’s youth aren’t fit for service, and if anything Trump is making the military less welcoming to young people by trying to shun anyone who isn’t a performatively masculine white male.
A draft would flood the service with people who don’t want to be there, aren’t fit for the tasks needed of them, and don’t conform with his macho manly man vision of what he wants the military to look like. McNamara’s morons might wind up looking like Green Berets in comparison.
In any event, Trump has found a shiny new toy to distract him from Greenland;
No, I don’t think he’d back down. He wouldn’t care.
Yeah, people keep saying that, but why would he care? He’s not the one who’d do the dying. Trump cares only about himself; he’d cheerfully send the entire US military to their deaths if he somehow became convinced he’d profit from it.
Not original, though – Trump isn’t the first to want to bomb Iran – that goes at least back to John McCain: 
No, we could easily slaughter them.
Oh, I hope so. While the elite class can protect their sons from being drafted (women will not be allowed to serve), Trump voters from the lower classes will be sending their kids to fight and die. Even Trump voters from the upper middle class will be having their kids come home in boxes. The draft has always been unpopular; but as we saw in Vietnam, unpopular wars combined with drafting the sons of people with means are especially unpopular.
No way.
High income nations with conscription include Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland. Trump’s value system, with a focus on selfishness, is pretty much the opposite of what is seen there.
It is a mistake to think dictators don’t care about popularity. They do, and mandatory national service is very unpopular in the English speaking world.
Granted, most of them don’t crave it as desperately as Trump does all the time.
No, he hasn’t. He has just found a shiny toy to distract you when he just goes on his merry little way. We are now supposed to forget all about Greenland and treat it as “old news”, and far too many people are buying it.
It is a mistake to assume that Trump is currently thinking in any way that involves understanding consequences beyond the very immediate future and whatever’s in his immediate presence.
He was, to some extent, in 2016 - 2020. I doubt that he’s capable of it now.
The American Right actively wants to be unpopular; “owning the libs” and all that. Making people unhappy with them is one of their motives for taking power in the first place.
The total number of young people capable of military service is much higher in absolute terms than it was during World War II. It may not be as high in percentage terms (and I’m using “may” very skeptically; I don’t think it’s really very true) but it’s way more than the USA could ever need. It’s more than the USA could afford to equip.
It isn’t really that hard to mold a young person into a competent soldier. Most people who don’t have really serious health problems can do it. I know some think of soldiering as an elite skill. It’s really not, which is why during times of total war, countries come up with lots of soldiers.
Recruitment goals are falling short because people just don’t want to join. It’s not an appealing job for most people.
Park service or whatever Greenland has asking for a camping permit.
“Somebody’s got to go back and get a shit load of dimes!”