The
case for Canadian intervention
By Samuel Warde
Canadians are getting fed up with Trump,
from his withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Paris Agreement and
his violation of the Iran Nuclear deal to his recent trade wars and policy of
separating migrant children from their parents as a means of deterring
immigration.
Former Canadian diplomat, Scott Gilmore, has written extensively for McLean’s Magazine about the
Trump regime, proposing a variety of suggestions for pushing back against his
lawless administration.
And
it’s not like he doesn’t have experience having served as a political
officer for Global Affairs Canada, for the United Nations’ Office of the
National Security Advisor, and as the Deputy Director for Asia for Canada’s
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Here’s a short breakdown of his recent
articles:
Donald Trump’s diplomatic treason: From Russia to
the TPP and now Iran, Trump’s foreign policy moves have hurt U.S. influence in
return for no benefit. It is beyond bad. May 8th, 2018
How to save NAFTA in one day: If Trudeau
wants to save NAFTA, he could take a lesson from China, Russia and the
Philippines. Forget about appealing to the U.S. diplomatically, just suck up to
Donald Trump himself. May 28th, 2018
Trade sanctions against America won’t work: Sanctioning Trump
himself might: Instead of taxing American goods, Canada and the western allies
should collectively pressure the only pain point that matters to this
President: his family and their assets. May 31st, 2018
The G7
question: How do we America-proof the West?: America has
gone from bulwark of the western alliance to a threat. It’s time for a strategy
to contain the U.S. and defend ourselves. June 8th, 2018
And, most recently, he wrote an article making the case for invading America.
While he uses a bit of humor at the very
beginning of the article, his article is a serious analysis of the Trump regime
and makes a compelling case for foreign intervention to save America from
Trump’s lawless administration.
He begins with a quick summary of
Canada’s relationship with the United States, writing:
Future
historians will never be able to claim we didn’t try. As Foreign Minister
Chrystia Freeland said at the end of the recent disastrous G7 summit (and while
carefully avoiding the present tense) Canada is “the closest and strongest ally
the United States has had.”
And it has not
been easy; a more belligerent, loud and difficult neighbour would be hard to
find. But we have remained unfailingly calm, helpful and even polite. We were
there to accept their wayward American aircraft after 9/11. We fought and died
beside them in Europe, Korea and Afghanistan.
He goes on to discuss the near-breakdown
of diplomacy between the United States and Canada and most of the rest of the
world, writing that “unfortunately, those days are past. Relations between
Washington and Ottawa (and Mexico City, and Berlin, and London, and Paris, and
Canberra, and Tokyo, and Seoul, and almost everywhere else except Moscow) have
reached rock bottom.”
Continuing, he wrote that: “Every effort
has been made, through multilateral channels, bilateral visits [and] shuttle
diplomacy” to sort out the current diplomatic meltdown, “but none of these
strategies have worked.”
After jokingly suggesting that Canada
invade the United States, he turns to the problem at hand, offering a detailed
analysis.
Gilmore begins by discussing four key
breakdowns in the United States:
- “American has become a failed state.” Gilmore writes that Trump and his fellow Republicans are unwilling to work with Democrats, leading to “the collapse” of the country’s “political institutions,” that “laws cannot be passed, ambassadors cannot be appointed,” and “even basic health care cannot be provided” to all of America’s citizens.
- “Corruption has reached third world levels.” Gilmore writes that “Congressmen and Senators spend so much time and effort collecting bribes… that they no longer have time to debate policy or legislation.” Continuing, he points out that Trump “has left himself wide open to allegations he is on the take, negotiating lucrative real estate deals for himself while he appoints family members to positions of power and influence.”
- “The United States is no longer able to control its own borders.” “Drugs and guns flow over their southern frontier and asylum seekers flee over their northern frontier. Due to an unchecked arms trade there are now more firearms in the United States than in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen and Syria combined.”
- The American government is no longer able to keep Americans safe. Concluding his list, Gilmore writes that “[Trump] himself has declared Afghanistan is safer than Chicago. Sadly, this also means the American government is not even able to protect schools, which now endure mass shootings on a nearly weekly basis.”
Continuing, he writes that the
international community has an obligation to step in and save America from its
current trajectory.
“We
must also agree the international community is obligated to intervene in order
to protect vulnerable groups. Most notable of these are African Americans. This
minority is systematically repressed, jailed at five times the rate of whites,
with a life expectancy three years shorter, and an infant mortality rate twice
as high.”
“Other
ethnic populations are also facing growing abuse and discrimination, most
notably Muslims, who the president has repeatedly sought to ban from entering
the country.”
“The
growing human rights abuses provide another reason why an invasion is necessary.
The state terrifies its own citizens with an incarceration rate higher than
Cuba, China, North Korea or Iran. Extra-judicial killings by the police happen
on average three times a day. Recently American officials have even stooped to
seizing the children of asylum seekers and detaining them in appalling
conditions without access to any legal recourse.”
Continuing, Gilmore discusses Trump’s
reckless and dangerous strategy of threatening world peace.
“There is, of course, the WMD issue. We do not need to hold up any phony vials of evidence at the UN to justify this invasion. The country openly flaunts its stocks of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. And the man who controls them has proven less predictable than Saddam Hussein or even Muammar Gaddafi.”
“President
Trump regularly boasts of his willingness to use these weapons and that his
“red button” is bigger than anyone else’s. What is worse, news has recently
broken that those charged with safeguarding these weapons are using LSD.
The world cannot rest until these weapons are out of the hands of this unstable
and volatile leader.”
Citing the Monroe Doctrine, a
United States policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas beginning
in 1823, Gilmore turns his attention to Russian tampering in the 2016 election.
“Finally, we must consider the Monroe Doctrine. Ironically, America’s long-time policy of opposing European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere now applies to America itself. When Moscow made Grenada a client state, Washington had no choice but to invade in order to safeguard the stability of the region. Likewise, now that there is growing evidence Donald Trump was installed by the Kremlin, and given the president has openly shifted his foreign policy to support Russian interests, Ottawa really has no choice but to intercede.”
Gilmore concluded his article writing
that, although the idea of foreign intervention in internal politics in the
United States might seem a “drastic step,” sadly it is one that is necessary to
help save America from its current condition.
Once
stabilization operations are complete, we can begin a nation-building campaign
so they finally obtain the peace, order and good governance they have longed
for over so many years. We will be greeted as liberators.
We
will launch training programs to explain gender equality, democracy and climate
science. A UN-monitored election will ensure fair play, eliminate
gerrymandering, and prevent Moscow from interfering again. We can make much
needed infrastructure investments in American airports that will finally allow
them to connect to the outside world (and in pipelines so they can connect to
our oil).
With enough NGOs, aid workers, contractors and cash we can finally bring peace to the region, usher the United States into the community of nations, and create new markets for our cheese and cheese-related products.
With enough NGOs, aid workers, contractors and cash we can finally bring peace to the region, usher the United States into the community of nations, and create new markets for our cheese and cheese-related products.