A war would be disastrous for both countries. Especially the US.
As President Donald Trump relentlessly threatens to annex Canada, some Canadians are worried that an American invasion could one day become a reality.
How would that scenario play out? Looking at the sheer size of the American military, many people might believe that Trump would enjoy an easy victory.
That analysis is wrong. If Trump ever decides to use military force to annex Canada, the result would not be determined by a conventional military confrontation between the Canadian and American armies. Rather, a military invasion of Canada would trigger a decades-long violent resistance, which would ultimately destroy the United States.
But in this nightmare scenario, could Canadians successfully resist an American invasion? Absolutely. I know this because I have studied insurgencies around the world for more than two decades, and I have spent time with ordinary people who have fought against powerful invading armies.
The US would initially run over Canada. Let there be no mistake there, it always does. Saying this as a proud almost Canadian, this US armed forces will overwhelm any country in the world.
Having said that.
The US hasn’t won a single war since WWII. It’ll overwhelm whatever country it invades and then inevitably gets it’s ass kicked from here and back to the US again. Anyone remember Vietnam? Afghanistan? Iraq?
If the US decides to invade Canada, it will sign it’s own death certificate.
The piece you’re missing is that all those wars after WW2 they weren’t fighting to save the world. They were fighting to line the pockets of the military industrial complex (and big oil) that sprouted up around post WW2 America. The goal wasn’t to “win” it was to funnel as much money into the pockets of several already rich and powerful cunts as possible.
If there was actually a threat to American citizens and we wanted to delete that threat entirely we would have absolutely no issues completely leveling pretty much any foreign nation with or without nukes.
Canada’s actually military would be a speed bump for ours. Nothing.
But dealing with the global backlash and potential escalation to nuclear war would be an unmitigated disaster for not only the US but the whole world.
We may not know exactly what would happen in the fallout after the hypothetical invasion but I think we can all agree it would be very bad for pretty much everyone on the planet.
I’m a USian and was home schooled by conservative Christian parents, so please forgive my ignorance.
If Canada was attacked, would the Crown be obligated to help defend you? Or are commonwealths on your own?
To clarify: “The Crown” is often a short-handed statement for the executive government, which is basically the Cabinet for the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) - all the Ministers of different government departments. Symbolically, they work in the interest of the de jure (written in law) authority of Canada, which would be the Monarchy in Britain (who is also symbolically head of state for every other Commonwealth nation). Now, as to touch on the British Commonwealth (since “The Crown” in Canada would basically be decimated in a conventional confrontation with the US):
It would turn into an existential crisis for everyone, I assume. A lot of “every man for himself” sort of mentality, but I assume there would be those who would want to fund a Canadian resistance (even if paltry) simply on the notion that an Imperial America is a FAR worse threat than anything Europe had faced before (expansionist policies, current global economic power, utterly disconnected from mainland Europe and the largest navy and airforce combined… kind of a worse situation than Fascist Germany, since it would be far more difficult to deal any direct damage to US infrastructure from the other side of the pond).
I’ll be honest, I would have no idea if the Commonwealth would actually step up in a way that is remotely similar to what we have done for Ukraine. I would honestly expect more help from Mexico and Latin Americans than I would the Commonwealth, as they would see that the US would be a very tangible threat at this point and also share the all-too-important land boarder.
I hate to say it, but I don’t actually think they would (I might be wrong)… For a country like the UK to jump in, it needs its population to be in support. If it jumps into an armed conflict without the support of its population, it will have its own revolution to deal with.
I think we’ll see a similar, albeit more committed version of the type of response Ukraine received… Military equipment aid, sanctions against US, humanitarian aid.
The same goes with NATO Article 5… US makes up the majority of NATO funding contributions, and European countries have to contend with a continuously brazen Putin… With US threatening to pull away from NATO, it would be countries like Poland and Germany that will step up against Russia, so no capacity to support Canada…
I really really really hope I’m wrong.
It fucking sucks all around.