Thus far, Trump has not raised the possibility of sending actual troops to Ontario. Instead, he seems to believe he can achieve this Canadian Anschluss by simply crushing Canada’s economy and leaving it no choice but to join the US.

But Canada in 2025 is not Austria in 1938. “Canada will never, ever be part of America,” declared newly elected Canadian Prime Minster Mark Carney last week, making the country’s position crystal clear. And, last month, the Canadian Armed Forces announced that after years of declining enrollment, it had seen a surge in enlistments since Trump took office, with about 1,000 more applicants than last year. (Canadian officials couldn’t attribute the new rash of interest to Trump’s threats, but they didn’t rule it out, either.)

Given that Canada will never voluntarily join the US—which it is adamant about—would Trump try to use force to annex it? And would Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth go along with this crazy plan?

  • redlemace@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    What do you mean “IF” ?? There is no IF He just hasn’t figured out how to succeed and get away with it. As soon as he has the answer to that…

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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      90% the things Trump suggests are not something he actually does. The trouble is you’re never sure which 10% are what he will do

      He floods the zone with so much intentionally that it all looks like noise. Don’t get twisted by it all. It’s designed to make you numb and assume he is more powerful than he is. He’s done that this term and he did it during his first term

      Follow his direct actions more than his words. Based on actions, I’d actually be a bit more alarmed for Panama invasion than Canada right now. He directed military to create plans for that. Watch it more closely

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The thing is, if you don’t know what they might follow through with, you need to take it all seriously.

        Or if you’re one of our allies, you have to take seriously what would directly affect you

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    2 months ago

    Do you not remember when Justin Trudeau met with Trump, and shortly afterward telling people that Trump was serious?

    Trump is serious. He’s incredibly brash and stupid, rife with tiny dick energy, which makes it dangerous.

    • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works
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      I kinda pick one of these land grab schemes as the tipping point. If the current armed forces can look at what’s waiting for them when they discharge and still go “yeah fuck Greenland!” then there’s no coming back from this.

      I’m a gun owner. I’m a solid shot @ 300 yards with a T/C encore 6.5. I’m smart enough to know that Id probably be dead before I even remembered to chamber against any armed forces. The military is what worries me right now very much. Especially if they choose how i would like them to. There’s major repercussions to refusing orders (i assume) and I won’t be the one to bear those so i can only ask.

      • snooisafascist@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        This. My standard handgun is laughable compared to the military grade weapons that both the police and the military have.

        People have been saying “It’s time to pick up arms and use the second amendment as intended” but in reality, the people who do that will be shot as soon as they raise their weapon. It’s suicide by cop/military.

        • futatorius@lemm.ee
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          And yet poorly armed civilians have overthrown governments. Why is that? Could it be that relative firepower is not the only factor?

          Also, even if it’s a matter of force meeting force, focused application of force at a critical point is determinative, not overall force. History is full of cases where smaller forces won.

        • CyboNinja@lemmy.world
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          An AR15 or AK is plenty good enough. And if you have the money you can also get basically whatever night/thermal vision equipment your wallet can handle. At least in the USA still. If your handgun doesn’t feel like enough (I agree that it’s not) then I suggest you get yourself a long gun (and lots of ammo) before you can’t anymore. Silver lining to all this bullshit is guns and ammo are as cheap as they’ve been in a long time. Unfortunately no one has any money…

          Also you’re right about it being suicide. But that’s only if you’re alone. Open carrying during protests has historically actually been pretty effective at keeping the peace. That’s also how guns got/get banned though. The Black Panthers and Ronald Reagan for example.

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            You’re assuming individual citizens are going to directly face the military. It’ll be a guerilla war fought by irregulars. Militaries are piss-poor at putting those down, especially against their own citizens. You hit them where they aren’t, not where they expect you.

            • CyboNinja@lemmy.world
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              You’re assuming that I’m assuming things… All I stated was that US civilians have access to military grade firearms and accessories and that person (and people in general) should procure one for themself. Also mentioned some stuff about open carrying at protests…

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    Everything he says, he’s serious about. Annexing Canada, Greenland, Panama canal, tariffs, not leaving office (currently floated as running for another term after this one), getting revenge on all his enemies, etc etc. All of it. How much of it he can actually do is however much he isn’t stopped from doing.

    Would he order use of force? I don’t know. But the question isn’t whether Hegseth would go along with it–of course he would. The question is how many American troops would follow the orders. IMO many or most would refuse. They (and the US populace) would view using military force against Canada in the same way they would view using military force against American citizens (which I would not be surprised to be ordered at some point). Other than a few hardcore magats, I believe we would never go along with a war against our Canadian cousins.

    • 60d@lemmy.ca
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      I believe we would never go along with a war against our Canadian cousins.

      I fucking hope so. Many of us have relatives on both sides. We share culture, to an extent. It would basically be civil war.

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      True, but I worry that only very left individuals are really talking about this probability. In the big picture, centrists and right wingers don’t believe it will happen. Mother Jones is left, but it’s also a large media company. If we can get more media companies to report on what we think is obvious, it will force the centrists and “I don’t do politics” people to hear it. I hope this article is the start of the discussion in the media, which will take time to happen, unfortunately.

  • samus12345@lemm.ee
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    He always is. The only question is if anyone with the power to stop him from doing whatever dumb as fuck thing has entered his diseased mind at the moment will stop him.

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    Reminder that Canada has a population of over 40 million people and the Canada-US border is three times the length of the Eastern Front in WWII, which is by a long shot the largest front of any war in human history.

  • Laser@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Send rump up here to Canada. We’ll take care of the problem that muricans cannot

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    2 months ago

    Half of all Canadians support joining the EU, and while I haven’t seen a poll for us Europeans I’m sure we’d love to see it.

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    “Why would we do that?” said Frank Haynes, a 94-year-old Korean War veteran, who seemed utterly baffled by my absurd question.

    That’s pretty much what every American is thinking.

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    2 months ago

    MAGA path to success

    1. Leave NATO
    2. Invade Canada, a NATO country, triggering Article 5
    3. ???
    4. Profit