Recent searches
Search options
So, here's my defense plan for Canada. Basic philosophy: it is unsafe to wait for an attack.
1. Get public confirmation from NATO that Article 5 applies even if the aggressor is also a NATO member.
2. Send an ultimatum to Washington demanding a public acknowledgement of Canadian sovereignty by the President and confirmation of non-aggression.
3. In the absence of that acknowledgement, sever diplomatic ties, close the borders, and embargo trade. Blow bridges, tear up roads and rail lines.
4. Evacuate Canadian civilians from the border area; probably 300km or more. Yes, this is where most Canadians live.
5. Declare a security corridor of 300km on the other side of the border, in US territory. Any military activity in that area is a sign of imminent aggression and will prompt a defensive strike.
6. If anything occurs, surge forward and take territory. Keep any war on US soil, not in Canada.
The goal is to get Canadians out of harm's way for a shooting war with short-range missiles (500km-1000km); keep something like an economy running, although severely curtailed by the loss of US trade and any facilities near the border; and bring the maximum pain to the US economy, civilian morale, and government.
We can't afford giving an aggressor the benefit of the doubt; too much of our population is within an hour's drive of the border.
If we wait until the US military moves into position to invade, we will have already lost.
We have thousands of kilometers of borderland between the continental US and Canada, as well as Alaska and Canada. Even if the US makes headway into Canada, we can identify areas of the US to occupy. The psychological effect of having US territory occupied by a foreign country would be really devastating on its citizens.
@evan While fighting on enemy territory may be the correct military strategy, I'm not convinced taking enemy territory will inevitably have a significant effect on enemy morale. Ukraine advancing into Russian territory doesn't seem to have crushed Russian morale; or, alternately, Russian morale is already shot and the war machine does not depend on the morale of Russian soldiers or civilians.
@skyfaller nothing's inevitable. Americans are daintier than Russians, though. Surviving occupation is the national sport in Russia, but Americans haven't had to do it for 250 years.
And America's national sport is entitled rage.
Look, I'm on your side here. You're making the same mistake about Americans that the Japanese made at Pearl Harbor and al-Qaeda made on 9/11.
I'm not saying don't seize territory, I'm saying don't do it with the assumption it will worsen morale. It won't. It will harden resolve, not weaken it.
@siderea @skyfaller Absolutely possible and a fair point!
I suggested occupying low-population areas to put a lot of red on the map and attract military effort to those spots, so the war happens on US soil instead of Canadian soil.
That is probably not a great strategy from the American side, but I think popular opinion would insist on it.
It also gives something to negotiate over: you return southern Ontario, we return the Alaska panhandle or whatever.
@evan oh, definitely try to have the fighting on US soil. As to low population areas, Canada is going to need to strike at relevant US military bases, wherever they are.
You are speaking in anger and fear, which is understandable, but time has come, alas, for cold-eyed military pragmatism.
@siderea @skyfaller oh, I'm not angry! This is just a thought experiment, not a serious plan.
Like I said, I'm just a software developer, not a military planner. I was just wondering, if a war is coming, what would be the best ways to survive as a sovereign nation?
I think, as the much smaller nation, we'd need to use other advantages: territory, initiative, allies. Being passive probably wouldn't work, I think.
@siderea @skyfaller Yeah, but that opens up a whole different can of worms. I think it's a lot harder for the US to break off a proxy war with China than it is to break off a war with its own NATO allies (ex-allies?). And popular support of a war against a Chinese proxy right on the US border would probably be much higher than for a costly war of conquest.
@evan I don't know it matters. Once a war effort starts, the Trump administration isn't going to let it end.
Please understand, the reason he wants war is as much to organize US society around it as it is to gain any of Canada's resources. "We have always been at war with Eurasia."
He doesn't want war to get something. He wants war for war's sake.