Originally Posted by
UltraFan
Well, the citizens of the USA may be happy or not but it was their government who started the arms race and got all their "allies" to follow. NATO was founded with just one purpose - fight the imaginary battles with imaginary enemies of a paranoid US president with huge daddy issues. NOBODY is challenging your sovereignity, and the only country that ever tried still has their queen on your money. And today IS the day when you can simply say, enough. You don't need to "foot the bill" for "defense", because you simply don't have enemies. A billion dollars invested in diplomacy will go MUCH further than a billion spent on fighters.
Bear with me. So, the Russians are re-arming the Arctic because their own precious metals, oil, gas, diamonds and fresh water they have in their own Far North are somehow inferior to Canadian? And they want to abandon their own icy deserts to conquer yours? Do you realize how outdated this outlook is? You are trying to fight a war that has already ended. And it ended 30 years ago.
As for the USSR invading the Baltin republics, two things you are forgetting. One, the Baltics were Russian for 300 years before that and were only independent from 1918 till 1940. So they were taking BACK what was theirs. Just like, say, US wants Cuba back. And two, it was 80 years ago. Eighty years ago water taps in America were marked "white" and "coloreds", France executed people with guillotine, and women weren't considered clever enough to vote in Canada. Are they all still the same countries? Or has the world moved on?
Indeed! It's a block of nations that none of those nations need. And Canada needs it the least. A huge country with most of it under permanent ice. What do you do with it even if you decide to take it? Farm polar bears? Fresh water? You know what Russia has more than any other country in the world, except Brasil? Fresh water. So what exactly are you "defending"? And from whom?
The difference between military expenditure and car insurance is that you at least get something in return from car insurance. I seriously doubt Canada will get much from 80 fighters in case of an imaginary potential conflict with Russia.
VERY well argued!! I believe that other gentleman is from Alberta so one must make allowances. 🙄
Thanks for this, UltraFan