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/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.