Trump continually says the war in Ukraine is horrible, soldiers and civilians are dying everyday and he hates to see suffering and dying over there.
Well, has he thought what would happen if the USA tried to annex Canada? There would be people dying, there would be soldiers AND civilians killed, it would be just as bad, if not worse than Ukraine.
Canadians will FIGHT for our country. We will kill and die for our country if we have to, just like any other country defending an attack on their sovereignty.
Why hasn’t any reporters even asked him this question??
My concern is that once push comes to shove he’s gonna deploy a nuke, take out a major city, and demand surrender under the threat of more nukes. At this rate it doesn’t seem so far fetched considering everything else he’s ranted about
Canada is so close to the USA that any nuke would also blow into the USA and cause problems down there. The entire world would gang up on the USA if they nuked Canada. Not even sure if Russia, North Korea or China would side with the USA if they did that. They have too many enemies and are losing their allies so I really don’t know who would side with the USA if they did that. It would be their downfall
I don’t think he cares about radioactive fallout in NY
I’m not sure Trump cares if it damages the US
Canada is well loved around the world. If he nuked us, the US would be severely fucked.
I think we’d only see that as a serious possibility after a conventional military invasion had turned into a quagmire, and we’d only see a conventional military invasion after a lot more provocations and failed “economic” annexation attempts.
I think Trump believes that Canada really is just some piece of real estate he can “acquire”, but that very fact means that he’s not going to go straight to the biggest guns because he assumes the Americans will be welcomed as liberators after just a little effort. It’s only when those little efforts keep on failing that there’ll be ramp-up.
This will take years. We’re in for a long haul, and victory for Canada is possible at each step along the way, so I’m not too worried yet. Angry, but not worried.
Ideally, we’ll help Ukraine finish off Russia in the near future and then we’ll be able to purchase a ton of really spiffy gear from Ukraine that’ll take an invasion off the table. Ironically, all that military hardware the Americans gave Ukraine under Biden can now be reverse-engineered to make good anti-American-forces drones if needed.
Fair points all around. Especially noteworthy since “people” like Kevin O’Leary and others surrounding President Donald are all telling him that lots of Canadians want to be Americans. He’s definitely in an echo chamber
I think it’s time for the Canadian government to carve out exceptions in the gun laws for those who are trained militia and reservists. Like, so long as you are properly trained and completely fail to trigger any “red flag” laws, you should be good to own any weapon clear up to naval artillery.
Canada should also be stockpiling said weaponry for immediate distribution when an invasion does occur. We just don’t have the military to prevent any kind of an invasion, but even a moderately trained civilian can sow a lot of chaos with a basic sniper-class rifle and some elevation. They don’t even have to hit anyone, technically; even near misses that audibly ricochet can delay troops and slow them down.
Wars aren’t won with weapons. Battles are won with weapons. Wars are won with intelligence and logistics.
Russia tried to make their “special military operation” a battle and take Kyiv in the first few days. They failed, and now they have a war on their hands. If you follow the details of the war, a lot of focus is placed on cities that are well-connected to other cities by road or by water. Your military can be much more agile in where it chooses to deploy resources if you control the supply infrastructure.
Occupations are notoriously even worse. The asymmetry of maintaining resources for an occupation is huge. Relatively small pockets of resistance, well applied, can cripple an occupier’s forces, even if the resistance is relatively poorly armed.
The question is what the limit of the American populous’s tolerance for soldiers dying to occupy Canada, of all places. I hope we never find out.
My point being: why let them be? Why intentionally nerf Canadian citizenry, when they could be given every advantage?
I think we agree on the overall premise, but disagree on the degree. I also think that’s fine. I don’t know how hard it would be to arm Canadians broadly as you suggest. I’m suggesting that armament will be most effective built on a foundation of intelligence and logistics.
I think there would be value in something like the Swiss model (though I understand that it isn’t as ubiquitous as it once was).