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Comment by UltraViolence | Hacker News Reader

We have invaded Canada, twice!

And we've lost, twice! (American Revolutionary War and War of 1812)

Third time is the charm?

There's absolutely no way the US would lose this time, though, not that it would ever happen anyway. Even if we had time to attempt a defense, almost no canadian would be willing to die for Canada. The typical "Canadian patriots" who would have been willing to probably have soured on that idea in the past 2 years.

You're thinking in terms of just US vs Canada. You're also forgetting that Canada is part of the Commonwealth. You can bet your bottom dollar that Commonwealth nations (at least a couple of whom are nuclear enabled, and some of whom have their own defence industries including ship and fighter jet production) would become involved. The US would find themselves on the short end of the NATO stick, including free trade agreements being jeopardised. Then there's the opportunism by Russia and China. Any distraction such as an invasion of Canada, and one that drags in allies, would provide an opportunity for them to apply global trade and banking restrictions, leverage geopolitical issues, disrupt supply chains, etc.

It would not be nearly as straight forward as "America military is big and grunts loud, Canada has beavers and mittens."

> You can bet your bottom dollar that Commonwealth nations (at least a couple of whom are nuclear enabled, and some of whom have their own defence industries including ship and fighter jet production) would become involved.

I can't tell if you're serious or not.

You're insane if you think that either those nations would take any real action OR that the US couldn't take them all at once without breaking a sweat. The scope and quality of military power and technology wielded by the US is astounding. Probably just the Navy could take those countries.

It's interesting to ponder a world where, when Russia goes for Ukraine or Baltic states and China matches up their timing for Taiwan, the US bails on NATO and Pacific allies and goes North instead.

It's ridiculous on so many different levels, and that seems worth considering.

It sounds ridiculous because the US can't possibly size up its own territorial aims while it's busy committing cultural suicide. Russia and China aren't confined in that way.

I agree that that is one aspect to consider.

Plus, when such large portions of the economy are exporting culture and currency, the US is basically in the business of selling cooperation. So that would fall apart pretty quickly, and with it the immigration the sustains population despite low fertility rates.

Plus it's just inconceivable that it would be a goal in the US. Maybe that's just good propaganda, but I think not.

Well, sure, if you consider America's empire as a flex of "softer" power, as in selling cooperation and Disney, then maybe it's just absurd to think of Canada being any more culturally American than it already is.

The Commonwealth isn't a defense organization, so this is BS.

Nice Whitehouse you’ve got there. Be shame if anything ‘happened’ to it. Again.

Burn the White House all you want but this time leave Buffalo alone !

Third time was the "pig war" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War_(1859)!

I know we invaded Canada with six armies in 1812 and all of them got their butts kicked by the British, but I never heard of an invasion during the Revolutionary War.

Montgomery invaded quebec, thinking the local (freshly conquered) french canadians would join the revolution, which didn't happen. They took Montréal, laid siege on quebec but ultimately had to withdraw with heavy losses due to winter, mounting losses, and low morale since the American militiamen were absolutely not keen to fight this far away from their home states.

The event is a bit forgotten in the US but here in Canada, it's taught in high school. The relatively huge celebrations of the 200th year anniversary of the 1812 War back in 2012 also mentioned the invasion quite a bit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Quebec_(1775)

Mind you that in the late 18th century many Canadians wanted to free themselves of the British yoke as well.

However, the loss of the American colonies led to an increased British military presence in Canada (1 soldier for every 5000 settlers) which made rebellion practically impossible.

One rebellion led to the hanging of all the leaders and they never attempted to revolt again. Since then, they've been brainwashed into thinking this was best for them and that Americans are a bunch of unrestrained morons.

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