Chat with a Canadian

I love Canada. I only had a chance to visit there once but it was one of the great experiences of my life as, one autumn, my wife, her parents, and I traveled throughout western Canada for about 10 days. The people were friendly, the scenery was incredible, and the memories and photos were, well, just priceless. So far, I have never met a Canadian that I disliked.

However, having said that, I, and a number of people, had a dinner conversation with someone from Eastern Canada a few weeks ago that left me feeling a bit ambivalent about our neighbor to the North. First of all, he made it clear that Canadians do not consider themselves “North American.” I really don’t understand that. I looked on the map and, sure enough, Canada, Mexico, and the United States are all part of North America. Not as far as Canadians are concerned, he said. “America” is most closely associated with “Americans,” or people from the U.S., so Canadians don’t consider themselves “Americans,” or even “North Americans.” Canadians, he allowed, had more in common with Europeans than they do with “Americans.”

Secondly, he expressed that Canadians do not agree with the war in Iraq. One of the other people at the table pointed out that Canada had no troops in Iraq anyway, so what was their complaint? The more he spoke about how the U.S. was wrong to be in Iraq, the more I thought I was listening to a Frenchman. And he wasn’t even French-Canadian!

Thirdly, he said with apparent pride that Canada was considering downsizing what little military forces it had. It seems that people in Canada don’t feel they are in any danger of being invaded. It was at this point that the mouth I had kept firmly shut took on a life and will of its own.

I pointed out that Canada was like the weak, younger brother that didn’t know how to fight off the bullies and didn’t have the means to do so anyhow. Canada, I expressed with all the tact of a cruise missile, had a big, strong, powerful older brother to the south that was so mighty and awesome in its war-making capacity that no nation in its right mind would dare to attack Canada for fear of arousing the elder brother. “It’s easy to have the luxury of a small military and be able to afford national health care when your backside is covered by the United States,” I declared not too gently.

Maybe I overreacted. Perhaps I should have just kept my mouth shut. But I am sick and tired of people from nations that we protect feeling like it’s always open season on the United States.

South Korea is a viable nation today. Why? The United States.

Europe was never attacked by the Soviet Union. Why? The United States.

China has not invaded Taiwan. Why? Again, the United States.

Kuwait is free today because of a U.S.-led coalition. Saudi Arabia was protected from an Iraqi invasion by the United States, not that they are one bit grateful. Afghanistan and Iraq have had free elections, where even women could vote, again, thanks to the United States. And let’s not even go as far back as World War II, where every free nation was losing the battle against tyranny until the United States joined the fray. And who was it that kept Communism from overwhelming everything around it? Yep, you guessed it.

No, we haven’t done everything right and, in some cases, we’ve done a few things incredibly poorly. But who would these people rather have as the world’s only superpower? China? Russia? France? The one thing you can count on when we win a war is that, sooner or later, we will leave and turn the country back over to its citizens. That can’t be said of the world’s former superpowers. Even England and France had to be kicked out of numerous nations before the citizens got their country back.

These days, if we want oil, we pay for it. We don’t conquer a country and strip it bare of its resources. I’m sorry if I appear to rant, but it wasn’t Canada or Scotland, or Ireland, or anyone else who has lost 5,000 people to murderous terrorists over the past few years. Evidently, no one else is going to step up to the plate and combat this threat, so it’s left up to the world’s only superpower.

I don’t blame all these other countries for not wanting to fight. But quit being so smug and acting as though appeasement or aloofness or cowardice is honorable. Oh, and you could say, “Thank you,” once in a while.