CHARBONNEAU – If the U.S. invades, we’ll ask Russia for help

WHEN RUSSIA INVADED Ukraine, the U.S. supplied weapons and military aid.

If the U.S. invades Canada, we should request aid from Russia.

Russia’s arsenal is impressive. They include Iskander Short-Range Ballistic Missiles; Kalibr Cruise Missiles that can be launched from ships, aircraft, and submarines.

Cluster Munitions can be delivered via artillery, rockets, and missiles. TOS-1 Heavy Flamethrower Systems are capable of firing thermobaric rockets that create high-temperature explosions. 

Russia has cutting-edge military technology such as hypersonic missiles that can fly at 10 times the speed of sound, making them difficult to track.

It’s never a joke when the United States threatens to invade.

“Inhabitants of Canada,” said U.S. General William Hull. “The army under my command has invaded your country, & the Standard of the Union now waves over the Territory of CANADA. To the peaceable unoffending inhabitant … I come to protect, not to injure you.”

Hull declared that: “the arrival of an Army of friends must be hailed by you with a cordial welcome” – though Canadians who refused to be “emancipated from Tyranny and oppression” would “be treated as enemies.

“The United States offer you peace, liberty and security.” And if we didn’t comply we’d get: “war, slavery, and destruction,” said Hull in 1812.

It didn’t go well for General Hull. After a brief invasion of Western Ontario and declaring his proclamation he marched back to Detroit. His army was later surprised and surrounded by a smaller force under General Sir Isaac Brock, to whom he surrendered. At war’s end in 1814, a U.S. court martial sentenced Hull to death, though the sentence was commuted by the president.

As Ukraine welcomed help against the invaders, Canada would welcome Russia; our allies in the Second World War.

Canada’s former Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, speaks the four languages including Russian. 

She is a tough negotiator, able to deal with the pompous clown who is about to become president of the U.S.

True, Chrystia Freeland is not welcome in Russia after her strong condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, particularly the annexation of Crimea.

But despite the differences between Freeland and Russia, Russia would love to have a foothold in this continent. Differences can be overcome when there is mutual gain.

After the U.S. tried to invade Cuba in 1961, in the so-called Bay of Pigs invasion, Fidel Castro sought help from Russia.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to secretly install nuclear missiles in Cuba.

The U.S. responded with a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent further delivery of Soviet military equipment.

After secret negotiations, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for a U.S. public pledge not to invade Cuba.

Also in exchange, a secret agreement to remove U.S. nuclear missiles from Turkey, which were pointed at the Soviet Union, was struck. A direct hotline between the U.S. and Soviet Union was established.

Threats of invasion can make strange bedfellows. 

The windbag who would be president of the U.S. needs a lesson in diplomacy and how to tone done the rhetoric.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.