Canada preps for hypothetical US military invasion for first time in 100 years: report

A leading Canadian newspaper published a front-page article on the nation's armed forces gaming out a response to a hypothetical response to an invasion by the United States.

The Globe and Mail presented the report above the fold of its print edition Tuesday outlining a strategy modeled by the Canadian Armed Forces for responding to an American assault, the first time such plans have been created in a century, after President Donald Trump has threatened to annex the nation and others.

"A military model is a conceptual and theoretical framework, not a military plan, which is an actionable and step-by-step directive for executing operations," the newspaper reported. "The two senior government officials said military planners are modeling a U.S. invasion from the south, expecting American forces to overcome Canada’s strategic positions on land and at sea within a week and possibly as quickly as two days."

The officials, who the Globe and Mail agreed not to identify, said they believe it's unlikely the Trump administration would order an invasion of Canada, which they conceded did not have enough military personnel or sophisticated equipment necessary to fight off a conventional attack.

"The military envisions unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military or armed civilians would resort to ambushes, sabotage, drone warfare or hit-and-run tactics," the newspaper reported. "One of the officials said the model includes tactics used by the Afghan mujahedeen in their hit-and-run attacks on Russian soldiers during the 1979-1989 Soviet-Afghan War."

"These were the same tactics employed by the Taliban in their 20-year war against the U.S. and allied forces that included Canada," the report added. "Many of the 158 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 were struck by improvised explosive devices or IEDs."

Conscription has been ruled out for now, the officials said, but Gen. Jennie Carignan, chief of the defense staff, has announced plans to create a 400,000-plus-strong reserve force of volunteers that could be tasked with fending off a U.S. occupation, and military planners have identified a clear signal of a possible invasion.

"Military planners envision an American attack that would follow clear signs from the U.S. military that the two countries’ partnership in NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, was ending, and the U.S. was under new orders to take Canada by force," the Globe and Mail reported.

"A senior Defence Department official said Canada would have a maximum of three months to prepare for a land and sea invasion," the report added. "The first indications that invasion orders had been sent would be expected to come from U.S. military warnings that Canada no longer has a shared skies policy with the United States, the source said."