Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a September 20th Bloomberg TV interview aired in Copehagen on the morning of September 23rd, that NATO nations must remove all restrictions on the use of their weapons against Russia by Ukraine, because Russia’s President Vladimir Putin aims to conquer NATO: “This thinking that if we allow him to take Ukraine or parts of Ukraine, then he will be satisfied, I disagree.” In other words: even for Russia to retain the parts of Ukraine that it currently occupies in Ukraine is entirely unacceptable, and so Russia must be simply conquered, or else Putin’s forces will conquer not only Ukraine but all of NATO and all of the world. Democracy u2013 The Go... Hans-Hermann Hoppe Best Price: $24.77 Buy New $37.61 (as of 09:25 UTC - Details)

During America’s invasion of Vietnam, the U.S. Government argued that if Vietnam would be taken over by communists, then all non-communist nations would become “falling dominoes”; and, so, America had to prevent that. Denmark’s Prime Minister is presenting her own “falling dominoes” theory against not communism, but instead Russia.

She said that “My suggestion is, let us end the discussion about red lines [of Russia]. … It has been a mistake during this war to have a public discussion about red lines,” which are “simply giving the Russians too good a card in their hands.” In other words: Russia’s enemies must ignore the warnings that Russia has issued against any NATO country that will allow its long-range missiles to be fired from Ukraine into The Kremlin (Russia’s central command) or other sites that are crucial for Russia’s national security against NATO. She said simply “I think that the restrictions on the use of weapons should be lifted.” In other words: ignore Russia’s national-security concerns altogether. (What precisely she meant by saying “It has been a mistake during this war to have a public discussion about red lines,” was not clarified: Should that “discussion” be only private, and the public not be allowed to know anything about it; or should there simply not be any consideration given by U.S.-and-allied Governments to Russia’s national-security needs. When she said that for NATO to consider Russia’s red lines would be “simply giving the Russians too good a card in their hands,” she was indicating the latter, which would mean that even private discussions about that matter among NATO nations would be “a mistake.” In other words: she was saying that she is an absolutist against considering Russia’s national-security needs — even privately within NATO.)

She turned on its head Russia’s statements of what the U.S. and its allies call “Putin’s red lines”: The “most important red line has been crossed already. And that was when the Russians entered Ukraine [on 24 February 2022]. So I will not accept this premise, and I will never allow anyone from Russia to decide what is the right thing to do in NATO, in Europe or in Ukraine.” So: NATO must never negotiate with Russia. Russia must simply accept what NATO does. (Her statement that the war in Ukraine started on 24 February 2022 instead of on 20 February 2014, has been contradicted both by Ukraine’s President Zelensky and by NATO’s Secretary General Stoltenberg.)

A Theory of Socialism ... Hans-Hermann Hoppe Best Price: $1.99 Buy New $10.70 (as of 07:55 UTC - Details) She also broadened her unconcern about the national-security needs of Russia, so as to encompass as being enemies also countries that do not stand with NATO against Russia: “What we see now is a Russia that is getting closer to North Korea and to Iran. And I don’t think that Russia would be able to have a full-scale war inside Europe without help from China, unfortunately. So this is not a European conflict, this is a global conflict.”

When the Bloomberg interviewer asked her about whether the U.S. Government shares the views that she was expressing about allowing Ukraine to fire deep into Russia the weapons that NATO countries are supplying to Ukraine, she refused to answer: “Frederiksen declined to comment on what the US position was on, for instance, the use of the 19 F-16 fighter jets given by Denmark.” (I have covered elsewhere what U.S. President Biden’s position on this is.)

Bloomberg News pointed out that, “Frederiksen, 46, is leader of the Social Democrats and has been prime minister since 2019.”

Shakespeare at around the year 1600 originated the phrase “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Reprinted with permission from Eric’s Substack.