Norman Paterson School of International Affairs Professor Philippe Lagassé told CBC the US could “probably” prevent upgrades or new parts for Canada’s offensive fighter jets, but the “entire armed forces has this problem.”
Former F-35 test pilot and retired lieutenant-colonel Billie Flynn echoed Lagassé.
“There is nothing unique about the vulnerability of the F-35”, Flynn noted. “Remember that every missile that we own and fire on the CF-18s and all our frigates, all our offensive weapons are American and necessarily the United States government has control over what’s loaded into the latest version.”
Canada’s military is desperate to avoid this discussion. According to retired Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, “senior officers are likely terrified by the perceived abandonment of their USAF [United States Air Force] relationships” that’s been caused by questioning the F-35 purchase. The RCAF leadership is facing a “crisis of identity”, adds Norman, since they have “a cultural bias towards the USAF”.
In fact, given its entanglements with their southern counterparts the Canadian Forces would likely enable a US invasion. As with the 2003 invasion of Iraq — which Ottawa officially opposed — some Canadian troops on exchange in the US might march north and, as is the norm when the US invades another country, Canadian officers would likely operate NORAD systems aiding the aggression.
That’s a pretty bold opinion with absolutely nothing to back it up. There’s a massive difference between supporting an army invading Iraq, and invading your own homeland.
Genuinely insane thing to say.
I can tell you for an absolute fact that every infanteer in the CAF is talking about how they would fight an American invasion to the bitter end, even if a surrender was called. Even the guys who are vocal Trump fans are ready to fight like hell for their country. Any one of these people would knock you the fuck out if you dared suggest they would turn traitor.
Ukrainian here. We know about huge amount of Russian high-rank officers who were born in Ukraine and have living in Ukraine relatives. And still those officers obey their orders.
So that massive difference might be smaller than you hope.
Were those high-ranking Russian officers living in Ukraine as adults and originally part of Ukraine’s military? Canadian officers in the US are on exchange (temporary operations with foreign forces), they’re not part of the US army.
I’m not dismissing the possibility, but these circumstances seem pretty different.
Will the military leadership turn the ship around or should anti-Trump nationalists, push to defund/recreate Canada’s military?
That’s quite the hardline dichotomy, that presumes quite a dearth of reasonability within our own military ranks. I seriously doubt we harbor conflicts of interests that run so deep we’d have to build a whole new military.
