Cross-border tensions or not, there’s growing talk in Washington that Canada and the U.S. could expand their military co-operation in a continental missile shield.
It came up last week at a U.S. Senate committee hearing, when the top-ranking Democrat reported he’d just gotten positive signals from Defence Minister Bill Blair that Canada could end decades of reluctance to join U.S. missile defence.
Rhode Island’s Jack Reed was talking about U.S. plans for a multi-faceted upgrade to the system — the project is currently nicknamed Iron Dome, a reference to Israel’s existing, albeit vastly different, system.
“I met recently with the defence minister from Canada,” Reed said, referring to Blair’s visit to Washington this month.
“They are very much interested in participating [in this initiative]. They have legal obstacles, but they assume they can jump over them.”
They’re actively talking about annexing us. This would be like Poland investing in Panzers in 1938.
The “Let’s let the radioactive shrapnel fall in Canada before it gets to the States” dome? No thanks.
Two years ago. Absolutely.
Now. You have got to be kidding me.
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Canada needs to be moving away from the US, not towards
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What does Canada do when the US says it needs to pay for 90% of it to be “fair”?
“We just need a few bases here and there, and to secure this buffer zone in the arctic, here sign this”
I have no trust anymore.
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Joining a defense initiative with someone who wants to take us over sounds like a bad idea.
But, if it was Europe asking, maybe.
If it gives us the ability to defend from missiles then it might be worth it. We can’t trust US military tech now though, and would need to be certain it is secure and independant.
Ditto. If it is secure, independent, and operated and maintained by Canadians, it is simply in the best interest of both countries. Frankly, it might be something we want to explore on our own even without the US leading it. We are an awfully large country though, and it might not be practical. But maybe we can atleast protect major population centers? Who knows. I’m out of my depth here.
It is in both of our countries best interests, really. If we refused it would be a petty move and a point of contention between the countries that is not needed.
Besides, this is the third time such a “iron dome” strategy has been attempted by the US and each one ends up a massive money sink and waste of time. I doubt third time will be the charm here. Very high chance this leads to nothing, and if it doesn’t, whelp North America is more protected from missile strikes.
I just wonder if Mexico is invited to the iron dome…
No thanks not with current administration. Oh sorry forgot to tell you the cost is your a territory now.
Assuming these sites are canadian operated and funded, I fail to see how this be used against us. I fully agree that the Trump admin is posturing itself as a threat to Canadians right now, but this could be a powerful way to remind the world that Canada and US are North Americans in it together. While shit is getting rough, we are ultimately in NATO together.
We can defend our sovereignty and cooperate with Americans simultaneously. Realistically speaking, this will go nowhere most likely.
If Canada is inside the dome, Canadians can lob anything across the border
If they annex Canada, it makes it easier for Canadians lob things over “any” fenceThis is entirely a non-starter. We simply do not have the technology to intercept ICBMs on anything but a local scale. Guarding thousands of km of our boarder isn’t feasible when you have literal seconds to intercept something that could land minutes away. I mean, ICBMs are hypersonic by definition since they fall at a rate of something like mach 20. It’s like trying to stop a bullet by throwing a BB at it. It can only work by placing ICBM interceptor sites every hundred KM or something across the entire boarder.
Imagine funding billion dollar interceptor missiles by the thousands. And that presumes that we have ones that work.
The Iron Dome works because it intercepts rockets that are technologically more similar to WWII Soviet weapons than modern day missiles. Against that, an ICBM is like comparing a hobby rocket to SpaceX’s Space Ship One.
Any serious talk about it is simply grifting, and Canada shouldn’t take part unless if the other side could provide evidence of it working without the projected costs being greater than our entire GDP. And even then, who are we going to use it against? The Russians? All evidence points to them not being able to get their existing ICBMs to work, let alone make new ones. And Canada isn’t in between China and the US, so that’s not a threat to us at all. And that presumes that China can lob an ICBM at several times the distance Russian needs to.
And all this presumes that we can trust anything that’s said regarding any kind of friendly cooperative from the south. First try ending your damn trade war with us, then we can start talking about some smaller low stakes cooperatives before ramping things up to things that has the potential to cripple our entire economy and autonomy.
Iron Dome-like defence system is going to be a very expensive with very little return.
US’s border is Canada in the north, Mexico in the south and oceans on its sides, Canada and Mexico wouldn’t fire any weapons towards US because they’re economically tied.
So the only case where Iron Dome-like system is useful is with missiles over the ocean where everyone can see it coming and have time to shoot it down.
Of course this can be useful if US thinks that the enemy will create satellites that can fire missiles
