In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s stated intention to annex Canada and make it the 51st state, the Canadian military has modelled a hypothetical American invasion and how both troops and civilians might fight back, according to a report.
In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s stated intention to annex Canada and make it the 51st state, the Canadian military has modelled a hypothetical American invasion and how both troops and civilians might fight back, according to Globe and Mail.
In his second term,
Trump has pursued an unabashed expansionist agenda and vowed to annex several countries and territories, such as Canada, Denmark’s Greenland island, and Panama Canal. He has also declared himself as the Acting President of Venezuela.
While many initially downplayed such assertions, the US invasion of Venezuela has raised concerns that Trump could actually make a military move on Canada or Greenland — both are members of Nato.
In the modelling, military planners found that the invading US military could overcome Canada’s strategic positions on land and at sea within a week and possibly as quickly as two days, as per the Globe and Mail.
The modelling found that Canada would resort to guerilla warfare to fight the occupying American military.
The United States and Canada are not just Nato allies but have a bilateral alliance well. The two countries jointly defend the North American airspace through the binational North America Aerospace Defense Command (Norad). An invasion would shatter the alliance.
Canada to fight back like Afghan mujahideen
The modelling found that Canada would fight the American occupying force with guerilla tactics used by Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet military during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-89) and later by the Taliban against US-led Western military in the country, as per Globe and Mail.
Canada does not have enough military personnel or the sophisticated equipment needed to fend off a conventional American attack, officials told the newspaper.
And that is why Canadians would resort to unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military or armed civilians would resort to ambushes, sabotage, drone warfare, or hit-and-run tactics, according to the report.
The aim of such tactics would be to impose mass casualties on occupying American forces, an official said.
In the exercise, military planners envisioned that an American invasion would come after clear signs about the end of the two countries’ military alliance that includes Norad.
A senior Defence Department official told the newspaper that Canada would have a maximum of three months to prepare for a land and sea invasion. The source added that the first real signal would be the United States informing Canada that the shared skies policy and Norad were no longer in place.
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