Ready Set FIGHT
“You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” ― Donald Rumsfeld
We are coming up on the 80th anniversary of D-Day in a few days. 80 years ago the greatest amphibious landing in history was attempted and while many men died, the day was a success and within a year the forces of Hitler were routed and the war was over. It had been almost six very long years since Germany had invaded Poland, September 1, 1939. The allied forces of the west changed immensely during that time.
Today, if a major power launched an attack on the west no such interval would be available. We would be defending ourselves with the tools at our disposal today. Not, as Donald Rumsfeld reminds us, those tools we hope for. Here in Canada that means we would be fighting with antiquated planes in the airforce, few ships capable of defending blue water access to our shores, and an army so few and underarmed we cannot fulfill the smallest of missions today. Our vast Northern Territory is totally undefended and not able to be even if the latest of the military’s icebreakers were available. They need an icebreaker for travel in our most northern regions.
Attack will come from the air with missiles and from the sea with ships. Internally positioned agents will rise and cause chaos and sabotage, striking key infrastructure and leading dissent to government response. A lightning strike similar to what Hitler did in 1939 is today as it was then virtually un-defendable for us here in Canada. A couple of air burst nuclear weapons high in the atmosphere could cripple our infrastructure. A few more targeting the oil sands and our shale deposits in Alberta and British Columbia could render our 500 year reserve of oil and gas to vapour.
Russia or China could then land forces in our northern archipelago setting up bases we could not reach to attack. And the fifth column already hard at work here would agitate and foment dissent to anything left of a Government and the response that would meekly be attempted. To those of us Canadians still alive and not shooting our selves to survive the ensuing period where we have no electricity, water, food or fuel, trying to mount a counter to this and regain our country will be virtually impossible.
Think of France during World War Two. A proud strong country locked into servitude by the German war machine, able to offer modest resistance that could annoy the conquerers but not displace them until help came. What help could we expect here in Canada if this was the situation. Those air burst nuclear strikes not only crippled Canada’s electrical infrastructure but took out the US’s as well. Their military, or what’s left of it, will be fending off landings on the west and east coasts. Texas, Louisiana, North Dakota and the areas making up the Green river shale oil deposit will be on fire sending plumes of radioactive smoke billowing across what’s left of eastern Canada and the US.
If survival and some sort of stability is returned to the population centres of Canada, mounting any sort of resistance from the population left will be next to impossible. Most folks with guns in Canada are law abiding folks and have a licence. Any conquering force will access this list first and remove any possible threat these people could pose. Whether that is confiscation of weaponry or simply murder the effects are the same. Little to no internal dissent once the government is defeated.
And then who is left? And what is left? Canada has no deterrence, no second strike capability to ward off any potential adversary. Our government does not seem to even want to depend on the US for its defence. We are ‘Post National’ don’t ya know. Our feckless leader is no Churchill. JT is not even a Chamberlain. And England had enough support from its empire states to at least mount a defence when Germany began the battle of Britain in July of 1940. And truly Britain would have surrendered had Germany not changed tactics during this extended battle and stuck to their plan to achieve air superiority the war would have been over before it began.
We can not rely on an error by our enemy today to provide us with the opportunity to defeat them. Any war will be over before this has a chance to happen. Both Japan and Germany committed strategic blunders to start the wars against their opponents that were unrecoverable from. This is unlikely to be the case in any future war. As we see now small theatre conflicts drain us of our capabilities. We are not capable of defence our our continent, or at least our country.
That successive leaders do nothing is tragic. That we are defenceless is unimaginable. Canada hada reputation for being a fearless warrior country, once with the forth largest navy and an armyrevered around the world for its ferocity and capability. We were a proud nation. But no more. Today we stand on guard for no one. Thee are on your own. Hopefully we can change this before its to late. Or maybe it already is.