It is hard to imagine an island less like Greenland than Diego Garcia, a lush coral horseshoe halfway between Africa and Indonesia.

Both lands host American military bases. But, whereas the United States has run down its Greenland garrison, it has wisely upgraded its presence in the Chagos Islands, the archipelago of which Diego Garcia is the chief island. That cluster could not be more strategically located, lying within reach of four of the seven global choke points that funnel maritime traffic: the Bab al Mandab Strait, the Strait of Hormuz, the Malacca Strait, and the Cape of Good Hope.

The Anglo-American base has proved its value again and again. In 1991, waves of B-52s took off from Diego Garcia to bomb Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. A goodly part of the campaign against the Taliban was waged from there 10 years later. The base stands as the supreme physical manifestation of the U.S.-U.K. alliance, under whose aegis freedom flourishes across the continents. With Iran collapsing, and China busily building runways over every coral reef it can enlarge, its importance is growing.

Incredibly, the British government, which owns the islands, is trying to........

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