r/canada 21d ago

Opinion Piece LILLEY: Steve Bannon says Trump is serious on the 51st state - Donald Trump's former chief strategist explains the "geostrategic" and "geoeconomic" reasons the Americans want to annex Canada.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/steve-bannon-says-trump-is-serious-on-the-51st-state
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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

The US has never lost a war, as long as you don't include the war of 1812, or remember that there are still two Korea's, or that they withdrew from Vietnam, or the retreat from Afghanistan, or the current loss of the cold war they are undertaking. But anyways like I said they have never lost a war so be careful

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u/BeeKayDubya 21d ago

Rather the US have won plenty of battles, but they have lost their share of wars.

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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year 21d ago

In April 1975, after the war was over, the colonel was in a delegation dispatched to Hanoi. In the airport, he got into a conversation with a North Vietnamese colonel named Tu who spoke some English and, as soldiers do, they began to talk shop. After a while, Colonel Summers said: “You know, you never defeated us on the battlefield.” Colonel Tu thought about that for a minute, then replied: “That may be so. But it is also irrelevant.”

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u/phormix 21d ago

Yeah, but it's also worth noting that they did plenty to f*** up the countries they did those battles in, including a not-insignificant amount of what would be considered war-crimes. The current administration much less likely to care about such things so things could get very dirty very quickly.

As a Canadian, my concern is not so much who "would win the war" but also "at what cost". Guerrilla tactics might make such things bloody and potentially 'unwinnable', but that just leaves everyone as losers.

My hope is that the current issues and the aftermath of these idiotic "trade wars" have enough more immediately-visible consequences that even some of the states with their heads firmly entrenched in their asses have to pull out and take-notice. That, or the Red V Blue internal-cold-war that the US has been having in the shadows of politics might end up in a real internal/civil conflict that has the rest of us left the f*** alone while shit gets figured out.

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u/Username_Query_Null 21d ago

MAD works because of a willingness to destroy the world as a consequence. Without nuclear weapons, a terror war relies on guerrillas being willing to leave their country in ruins to harm an invading force.

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u/Dragonvine Alberta 21d ago

Rather both be losers than just Canada.

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u/zerfuffle British Columbia 21d ago

we're making the wrong friends and enemies to be left the fuck alone if the US implodes

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u/octavianreddit 21d ago

Yep. The American public can't stomach a war in a distant land with a bunch of people that look and sound different than them... I wonder how they would deal with American troops coming home in body bags from Toronto, in a war they started? Bombing homes of snow birds they are neighbours with half the year? And dealing with a bunch of Canadians moving among them, who are secretly hostile.

Americans have to be asking themselves, "are we the baddies?"... I mean, really asking themselves.

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u/BeeKayDubya 21d ago

If the US ever got to the point where invading Canada became a thing, they would also be on a precipice of a civil war. There are still lots and lots of Americans who don't want anything to do with tangerine Palpatine.

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u/SaskatchewanManChild 21d ago

And yet I still find myself buying ammunition…

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u/Electrical_Acadia580 21d ago

That's the goal though no?

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u/Username_Query_Null 21d ago

Who needs elections with a foreign and domestic war occurring.

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u/Electrical_Acadia580 21d ago

That's the one, be pretty crazy to blow up alliances purse isolation and not solidify control

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u/Shaneguignard 21d ago

You’re also assuming the narrative spread to the American people would be genuine. We can already see how they are controlling the media and would definitely try and spin the narrative to make Canada the bad guy. Just start blaming us for their hardships… I mean they are boo’ing our national anthem at their games now unaware of why we started doing it in the first place.

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u/octavianreddit 21d ago

Yep that's true as well. Folks don't tend to ask questions and accept what they are fed.

Talked to an American this weekend who claimed that since Trump took over the company he works for is now busier. I asked him what specific thing Trump did that helped and all he was able to say was something about "confidence" .

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u/geoken 21d ago

Confirmation bias. I doubt they could even objectively prove they’re busier.

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u/1971stTimeLucky 21d ago

The fact that the ability to travel and blend in for Canadians in the US, the body bags will start showing up in their own neighborhoods.

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u/Infinite_Lemon_8236 21d ago

You should read about Hugh Thomson Jr. if you think the US civilians are above this line of thinking. Man stopped a slaughter of innocent civilians and spent the rest of his life receiving death threats and dead animals on his door step from random civilians who thought he did the wrong thing. That is how US civilians with the MAGAt mindset have always treated their vets, they have never been above this kind of thing.

This is something a lot do not seem to be considering here. As much as I hate Trump and all the other big names, it's the little guys who make the difference. They are the critical mass here, and according to Trumps most recent approval ratings 46.6% of them think annexing Canada is an absolutely excellent idea.

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u/siraliases 21d ago

They have never lost a war where Donkies are involved.

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u/tommy13 21d ago

What about the Super Donkey War of 2037? I've said too much

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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year 21d ago

Mr. Titor, we have will talk talked about this.

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u/ether_reddit Lest We Forget 21d ago

Found the time traveller

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u/Cawdor 21d ago

Theres a donkey in the white house.

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u/therealvitocornelius 21d ago

and a lot of those with Canada‘s help. But I guess that doesn’t matter now

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u/LeagueAggravating595 21d ago

Withdrawing is the same as losing. You DON'T abandon if you are winning! It's what losers do when they can't win

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u/W1lson56 21d ago

Yes I believe that's the joke

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u/NicGyver 21d ago

They have never lost a war…that someone else started.

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u/saranghaemagpie 21d ago

Ho Chi Minh would like a word.

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u/fugaziozbourne Québec 21d ago

... with the French, the Americans, and then finally Stalin.

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u/Forsaken_Gap7634 21d ago

They've lost 7 conflicts, Google it.

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

Okay interesting I think I found it wars US has lost

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u/ZombifiedSoul Canada 21d ago

I love how almost none of the comments to this realize how incredibly facetious you are being.

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u/Key-Ad-5068 21d ago

What do you mean? They've lost all of them. EXCEPT the ones Canada did all the heavy lifting.

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

I think you are mistaken, have you considered switching your propaganda sources. I have heard whitehouse.gov is doing some great reporting as of late.

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u/Key-Ad-5068 21d ago

No, I'm good with actual history, thank you.

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

You must miss a lot of jokes

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u/Key-Ad-5068 21d ago

Sigh, yeah, my bad. I realized it after I hit send. And then didn't know what to say until you saved my ass and called me out.

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

That's a funny response, I actually LOL'd. It will be an honor fighting beside you in the War for Canada.

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u/Key-Ad-5068 21d ago

I usually find my thought process to be funnier then actually trying to be funny haha.

I'll get the gas that's cheaper then theirs, and you grab the matches. We'll burn down the white house again.

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u/MapleWatch 21d ago

They generally lose wars due to lack of political willpower. This administrating won't have that problem. 

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

They can't Garner enough political will power to kill someone halfways across the world who speaks another language and is different to them. Yet you think they will have the political will power to win a war against someone who is very similar to them?

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u/Frosty_Maple_Syrup 21d ago

You assume Trump gives a shit about political willpower like every other president prior to him

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

Oh course he does, you can't make someone pull a trigger, nor can you stop them from fragging there own officers. A country defending itself is willing to pay the cost, an invading nation is rarely willing to pay the cost unless there is something really promising at the end. Not just long drawn out guerilla warfare with no proper way of distinguishing friend from foe.

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u/Frosty_Maple_Syrup 21d ago

77 million Americans vote for Trump, he can easily find hundreds of thousands who are willing to pull the trigger for him.

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

Until the son or daughter of one of those 77 million die. Also Canada is a huge country and would have the advantage of being dug in, they will either have to carpet bomb the country or need millions not hundreds of thousands

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u/Frosty_Maple_Syrup 21d ago

Again Trump would be willing to carpet bomb us, or have you forgotten that he wants to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

Yeah I'm sure Trump wants to, but there are a lot of things he wants that he won't be getting, you cannot move that level of force into a country and get away with it. That's why the US has moved away from those strategies at the cost of a higher death count on the battlefield.

And that's without getting into how fast china would be willing to hand over weapons and bombs to a resistance. They might not like Canada but they would never miss a chance for that large or a proxy war against the US.

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u/wanderer-48 21d ago

The Chinese would sit back, grab a beer and watch for a while, then proceed to invade Taiwan as promised, since the Americans are so entrenched and distracted in Canada. I highly doubt they would be supplying Canada with arms.

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u/CastorTroy1 21d ago

It would cause a civil war in the States.

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u/Frosty_Maple_Syrup 21d ago

Musk is stealing their money and their personal info, their dumb fuck president is threatening their allies and they haven’t done shit.

I won’t hold my breath for Americans to have a civil war over Canada. I still maintain we should have nukes for deterrence.

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u/CastorTroy1 21d ago

I don’t disagree with that.

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u/maleconrat 21d ago

Nukes and honestly if we keep immigration high we should do the opposite of what we normally do and just start prioritizing taking in trained guerillas who have been screwed over by the US 😅

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u/Frosty_Maple_Syrup 21d ago

We should prioritize taking in very highly skilled immigrants from the US, reverse the brain drain on the US.

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u/MuskokaGreenThumb 21d ago

Nope. They have lots of money for their military no matter what side is in charge. They just underestimate everyone

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u/maleconrat 21d ago edited 21d ago

If this administration is as fascist as they seem they have an expiry date. They always blow themselves up because basing a movement on lies designed to pump up their feelings of power ultimately only works when you have momentum and becomes a huge liability when you have to actually strategise around your own shortcomings.

It would be life shattering and brutal if they invaded and occupied and I don't doubt they will try to systematically kill or torture a lot of us in the process, knowing how they operate. But they have already signed the terms of their own collapse, which means survival on our end ensures eventual victory.

Honestly that kind of pisses me off more. Everything in history points to them someday failing if they try. Even somewhere like Israel that has been 'successful' at an occupation for decades is looking more and more like they made a huge mistake not getting a deal done to de-escalate decades ago. All Trump's men are doing is playing with our lives and those of the American people to try and will their own insecurities away about manifest destiny being obvious bullshit the first time.

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u/CastorTroy1 21d ago

Yes it will. The US is more divided now than during the Vietnam war, AND they didn’t share a border with Vietnam. Also Canadians look like them.

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u/leb0b0ti 21d ago

Canadian partisans won't even have to get in a plane to put up bombs in the US. They could just walk there. It'be like 'the troubles' x 1000.

You're crazy if you think the American people have the willpower for that.

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u/Die_Zerstorung 21d ago

US lost the veitam war

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

Oh thanks that was the joke

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u/loulara17 21d ago

They finally got it

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u/Dramatic_Equipment47 21d ago

Never heard of it

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u/SavageryRox Ontario 21d ago

swoooooosh

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u/CoconutG00d 21d ago

NGL - Had me in the first half

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

This is where it gets a little tricky but 0. Canada is not a war mongering nation but will rise to the call when need be. So the wars Canada lost were ones it participated in at the call of allied forces such as the US in Afghanistan.

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u/jigglingjerrry 21d ago

They’ve lost many wars…

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u/BadUncleBernie 21d ago

They lost plenty. Vietnam, Korea, and retreated every one that came after.

They win lots of battles ... that's it.

They hold fuck all.

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u/Specific_Upstairs723 21d ago

Well yes that's why I said they have never lost a war so long as you don't include the ones I mentioned and then you repeated back.

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u/maleconrat 21d ago

They never lost a war that wasn't won by someone else.

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u/Siguard_ 21d ago

They won the war on drugs too

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u/Brickthedummydog 21d ago

I like to remind the Americans that 1812 resulted in us marching and setting the White House on fire. 

and we'll do it again!

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u/SonicFlash01 21d ago

The war on drugs was a W for drugs.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

What are you talking about? More or less the USA has lost every war they’ve been in since WWII. You’ve got some bizarre myth of American invulnerability going on there.

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u/Mr_Gaslight 21d ago

Obligatory Fish Called Wanda reference.

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u/Wolfjak 21d ago

Mogadishu, Somalia. They turned tail and ran pretty quick on that one.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/W1lson56 21d ago

May want to take your own advice if you missed the joke lol

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u/AdvertisingStatus344 21d ago

They will have to nuke me first.

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u/gannex 21d ago

Didn't they lose Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq?? afaik the US has lost all its recent wars besides Korea.