Iceland and USA Sitting in a Tree?

On March 4, Icelandic Visir shared a sharp opinion of Sæþór Benjamín Randalsson, with a call to say no to the US. It was a reaction to the American actions in Iran:

“Iceland and USA, sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G.” So went the sing-song nursery rhyme about two kids being teased about being in love. The next verse traditionally went, “First comes love, then comes marriage, here comes Iceland with a baby carriage,” but the appropriate modern ending would be, “here comes Iceland with blood and carnage.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sæþór Benjamín Randalsson (born 1981 in the United States) is the chairman of the executive committee of the Socialist Party of Iceland and a board member of the Efling union. He was born in the United States and moved to Iceland around 2008.

Sæþór joined the Socialist Party of Iceland in 2018. At the party’s general meeting on 24 May 2025, he was elected chairman of the executive committee, replacing Gunnar Smári Egilsson, who had held the position since the party’s founding.

At the same general meeting, Sanna Magdalena Mörtudóttir was elected political leader of the party, but she resigned two days later, on 26 May 2025. Sæþór has since served as the party’s leader.

“Without any public debate, we are no longer a nation of peace. Our tax dollars—which are part of our life’s essence, our labor traded for salaries—are now going to purchase American weapons,” writes Randalsson. A debate has been sparked in Iceland, reviving the question of Iceland’s true sovereignty in public discourse; a group of protesters gathered outside the Icelandic Foreign Ministry in response to the US-led bombings, though they went largely unnoticed.

Many attribute this silence to the Icelandic government’s passive stance toward the US. Randalsson mentions a file that described Iceland as too independent and reportedly served as a basis for a targeted propaganda effort in the country:

“The file complained that Iceland was too independent, did not want to be used as a military base for America, and did not want to participate in America’s wars. It stated that more money needed to be spent and more Icelandic propaganda produced to change the opinions of the nation, ensuring they would willingly participate without complaint or debate. It was a chilling file because they have obviously gotten their way,” writes Randalsson.

The author mentions Spain, which has refused to host American operations against Iran and is currently being threatened with US tariffs as a result. Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, has made his position clear:

“We are not going to be accomplices to something that is bad for the world and that is also contrary to our values and interests, simply because of the fear of reprisals from some,” said Sánchez.

“Saying no to America would come at a price, but so too does obeying them. We are staining our legacy, teaching our children that cowardice is better than principles, because standing firm for what is right might cost us something. What cost are we paying by participating in the USA’s wars? I know that Þorgerður Katrín is ready to pay it, but are we as a nation?” concludes Randalsson.

Interestingly, Iceland’s current posture is not without precedent—nor without irony. Iceland is the only founding member of NATO to have experienced a large-scale riot in its capital specifically over the decision to join the Alliance—a protest so fierce it left the parliament building with broken windows and required police intervention to disperse. The country joined anyway, and has spent the decades since gradually reconciling itself to a dependency it once fiercely resisted.

The irony is sharpened by the fact that Iceland maintains no standing military of its own: it is a nation that has outsourced its defense entirely, and is now discovering the terms of that arrangement.

What is being quietly surrendered today is not just a foreign policy position—and a public debate is now growing around exactly that question—but the credibility of the Icelandic self-image. A country cannot simultaneously hold itself up as a beacon of progressive values and ignore the most pressing events in the world.

Source: Visir