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COMMENTARY
November 28, 2009
Friends like these
Perhaps it's time we dusted off the plans for defending Canada from the United States. Perhaps we are already doing so -- as I've learned from Mark Collins, who has been reviewing "highly secret" Canadian defence documents on his blog, The Torch.The documents are from 1922. That may seem a long time ago, but as I am not aware of any later strategic thinking, on the threat of an American invasion, we will have to take them as "most current available." As a writer of United Empire Loyalist ancestry, the invasion of 1812 remains fresh in memory, to say nothing of the Fenian raids, that contributed such urgency to our Confederation. And as a former boy scout, I think, "Be prepared." Here I am referring to "D.S. No. 1" from "NDHQ" -- distributed in 1922 and withdrawn around 1932, with instructions to all military districts to destroy it. You ever tell a bureaucracy to destroy something? What you get is what now exists in our national archives, a great deal of correspondence confirming the complete destruction of documents which, in turn, can now be found in the next file. The stuff I find most interesting was flagged yesterday. It is apparently from "RG 24, volume 2925, file HQS 3496" in the same Library and Archives Canada, and consists of, e.g., a slew of maps showing U.S. National Guard dispositions, estimates of how many troops they could muster, and speculations about likely U.S. invasion routes and objectives. It seems we were almost indecorously eager to surrender Windsor and London, Ont. to the Yankees. In my recollection the Yankees have long been eager to surrender Detroit, and as recently as 2004, when I was (perhaps facetiously) pointing out that liberal arguments for abandoning Baghdad would apply equally well to Detroit, I got a surprising number of letters from Stateside telling me that we could have it. The priorities then, as now perhaps, are Toronto, Kings-ton, and Montreal. These are considered by the (retired) defence planners to be the key Canadian assets. I would think, Kingston especially. Lots of fine stone buildings in that town. It would be downright embarrassing to lose the Royal Military College. Hamilton and Quebec City are also crucial to the defence of Canada; the steel town for its industrial might, and Quebec because ... (let me think of a reason). But my local readers may be distressed at the attitude of defence planners towards the fine city of Ottawa, which actually lies behind that "Quebec-Windsor corridor." I quote an excerpt cited on that Torch blog: "Ottawa, the capital of Canada, lies behind this sector. As, however, we do not possess a highly centralized form of government the capture of our capital is of no military or economic importance. In the minds of politicians and civilians, however, the importance of Ottawa may be greatly exaggerated and this should not be overlooked, as efforts may be made to concentrate forces for its defence, which from a military point of view might be more usefully employed elsewhere." One recalls, from time to time, Queen Victoria's unsentimental views on the disposition of our national capital, back in 1857. According to legend, she was shown its precise position on the maps, after this timber-rafting centre had been proposed as our new seat of government, on the unanswerable argument that it was neither Toronto, nor Kingston, nor Montreal, nor even Quebec City. Yet it was just across the river from "Wrightville" -- surely an important subconscious indicator. After fixing with difficulty on this wilderness location, Her Majesty is said to have told her advisers: "Brilliant, gentlemen! The Yankees will never find it." And they never have. But that doesn't mean they never will. In the news, we learned this week that Cuba is now conducting its largest military exercise in five years, a war game encaptioned, "Bastion 2009." According to Reuters, Cuban television has been showing "images of tanks firing their guns as they rolled through the countryside, artillery batteries blasting away, camouflaged troops digging trenches and shooting bazookas, attack helicopters and fighter jets buzzing through the sky and rescue teams tending wounded combatants." One envies those Communists in Cuba. They are so much better armed than we are. But I don't think they should worry. Cuba is, after all, an official enemy of the United States, and that's good news under President Obama. He has already announced all kinds of gratuitous concessions and favours to them. But alas, our Canada has long been one of Washington's most reliable allies. So given the propensities of the Obama administration, we had better take cover. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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