Mona Pereth wrote:
For decades, the U.S.A. and Canada have been on friendly terms, with a deeply rooted military alliance (e.g. via NORAD). Trump is screwing this up, which puts us all in HUGE danger.
Canada: Unsung Heroes of 9/11Quote:
On September 11, 2001, the United States shut down its airspace in reaction to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Because U.S. airspace was shutdown, hundreds of international flights crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans now had no place to land. Many of the planes were too far along and didn't have enough fuel to turn back.
Often referred to as "Operation Yellow Ribbon," it was the aid that came from Canada to take the inbound international flights that remains a largely untold story.
In order to defend the United States from further attacks, Transport Canada worked with its U.S. counterpart, the Federal Aviation Administration, to accept U.S.-bound international flights and provide refuge to travelers on that chaotic day. The agencies worked together to land the planes in isolated and protected areas such as towns like Gander, Newfoundland.
According to reports, Gander had a population of just 10,000 and yet it was to play host to the passengers of 38 jumbo jets, nearly 7,000 people in all.
Though the exact number of passengers varies from each source, Transport Canada has estimated that over 33,000 passengers on 224 flights arrived in Canada that day. After the initial task of diverting the flights was over, thousands of passengers had to be cared for and given food and shelter. Many towns like Gander did not have the hotel space to support the new population of stranded passengers. As a result, many of the passengers took shelter in gyms and schools -- and even in the homes of the town's residents. Many of the Canadian airports even took care of the stranded passenger's communication needs as well. Vancouver International Airport reported fielding hundreds of calls to family members to help ease the minds of loved ones.
The impression Canadian hospitality made on the stranded passengers was so great that many of them returned to Gander and other towns in later years to reconnect with "old friends." The quick response time Canada displayed on 9/11 is often credited to the experience of Canadian military personnel working with the U.S. in the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD.
Established in 1958, the bi-national command has been the "eyes and ears" of North America defending against external airborne threats. Since 9/11 the Canadian-American command has made great strides in improving readiness against all airborne threats regardless of origin. These improvements include greater visibility of domestic airspace, improved communications and exercises that test our mutual defenses.
Canadian CaperQuote:
Canadian Caper, escape of six Americans from Tehran during the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79. The escape was engineered by the Canadian government and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
When the Iranian Revolution, which toppled the U.S.-backed regime of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, took a solid hold in early 1979, Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and his embassy staff in Tehran scurried to evacuate the 850 Canadian workers from Iran. Having accomplished that, they processed thousands of applications for visas from Iranians anxious to flee the country. Meanwhile, Islamist militants stormed the U.S embassy on November 5, taking 66 Americans hostage. Iran’s new ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, made their release dependent on the extradition of the shah (who was in a New York hospital) to Iran. As the so-called Iran hostage crisis unfolded, 14 hostages (women, African Americans, and a gravely ill individual) were released, leaving 52 Americans hostage.
Six other Americans who had escaped the militants’ notice asked for the Canadian embassy’s help and got it instantly, with the full backing of Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark and Foreign Affairs Minister Flora MacDonald. Two of the fugitives were sheltered by Taylor in the ambassador’s home; four hid in the residence of John Sheardown, the top Canadian immigration official in Iran, from whom the Americans had first sought help and who had replied, “Hell, yes. Of course. Count on us.” The Canadians also offered to take in any and all of Tehran’s foreign correspondents should they get into trouble with the unpredictable revolutionaries.
Canada’s American houseguests hoped for a quick end to their exile, but the days and weeks stretched on. Meanwhile, the dangerous threat of exposure grew. Jean Pelletier, the Washington correspondent of the Montreal newspaper, La Presse, was the first to figure out what was happening, but, though he had been presented with a career-making scoop and was encouraged by the paper’s managing editor to break the story immediately, Pelletier refused to do so.
Once it was determined that an escape had to be attempted, the CIA slipped into Iran to arrange with the Canadians the removal of the six Americans. The Canadian embassy staff, in small groups, quietly returned home, as preparations were made to close the embassy. Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport was carefully scouted. Canadian passports and identity documents were arranged for the six Americans. With the help of people from the motion picture industry, the CIA had cooked up a scheme in which the six Americans were to pose as members of a film crew scouting locations in Tehran for a fictitious Hollywood science-fiction movie called Argo. Who else but filmmakers, the CIA’s planners figured, would go to Iran in the midst of a revolution? On January 27, 1980, the “film crew” navigated its way nervously through the airport and onto an early morning flight to Frankfurt. Later that day, Taylor and the remaining Canadians shut the embassy down and left Iran.
In the wake of the daringly successful escape, the United States celebrated Canada and Taylor. “Thank You, Canada” signs proliferated, letters of gratitude poured into Ottawa, and the U.S. Congress struck a gold medal in the ambassador’s honor. The CIA’s role did not become public until 1997. Argo (2012), the real-life motion picture directed by Ben Affleck that tells the story of the Canadian Caper, won an Academy Award for best picture.
Trump tariffs ignore Canadian sacrificesQuote:
“From the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday in a heartfelt speech addressing President Trump's harsh tariffs.
Do Americans even know where Flanders Fields are or what happened there?
Some of the most intense battles of World War I took place on Flanders Fields in western Belgium. About 1 million soldiers were wounded, went missing, or were killed in action. Entire cities and villages were destroyed.
Canadian officer and surgeon John McCrae wrote those haunting lines in one of the most famous wartime poems in history to honor the Americans, Canadians, French, German, Belgian and British soldiers who died on Flanders Fields.
Canada’s enduring bond with the United States might not mean much to an American president who can’t understand selfless behavior. Trump famously referred to the American WWI dead buried not far from Flanders Fields as “suckers” and “losers,” according to his former chief of staff, retired four-star Marine General John Kelly.
But it does mean something to the U.S. troops who have fought and died alongside Canadians for generations, most recently in Afghanistan.
More than 40,000 Canadians served in Afghanistan, and 159 Canadian soldiers were killed in action. Canada’s contribution and 12-year commitment to what became the longest war in its history was estimated at more than $18 billion.
Joint Task Force Two, Canada’s equivalent of SEAL Team Six, was part of a unit that received a U.S. Presidential Unit Citation for actions in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2002. JTF2 captured Taliban leaders and climbed in caves hunting for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Details of those missions remain shrouded in secrecy.
Bob Harward, a Navy SEAL who commanded Task Force K-Bar in Afghanistan and rose to the rank of vice admiral, said that his JTF2 team was his first choice for any direct action mission.
Five Canadian snipers received the U.S. Bronze Star Medal for Valor. The five “destroyed al-Qaeda firing positions, saved American lives, and tallied a body count unmatched by any Canadian soldier of their generation,” McLeans reported. In one of the longest confirmed kills in history, Canadian Rob Furlong took out an al Qaeda fighter from 2,430 meters (nearly 8,000 feet).
“Thank God the Canadians were there,” one American soldier said.
This is why we have allies, isn’t it?
Four Canadian soldiers killed in a friendly fire incident in 2002 also received the Bronze Star. An American Air National Guard pilot dropped a 500-pound bomb on Canadian troops while they were conducting a night-firing exercise near Kandahar. Canadians weren’t happy about it, but they acknowledged that these kinds of mistakes happen when you answer a close friend’s call to arms.
The next time Trump or another president needs Canada’s help to fight our enemies, will our friends and neighbors to the north be so quick to answer the call?
This is the thanks they get not only the tariffs but the incessant belittling not only by Trump but by members of his administration.
Kristi Noem Takes Bizarre Revenge on Canadians at Library She Used as a StuntQuote:
The American government is making it harder for Canadians to access the library in both countries where Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem pulled a bizarre “51st state” stunt earlier this month.
Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border—it’s half in Stanstead, Quebec, and half in Derby Line, Vermont.
Although the primary entrance is technically on the American side, the library has long been treated as a neutral zone, where citizens of either country were able to enter as they pleased. As part of the agreement, U.S. border officers patrolled the area around the library and were authorized to search people’s bags.
However, American border patrol officers are planning to ban entry to Canadians through the library’s main entrance unless they first enter the U.S. through an official border crossing point, the president of the library’s board told the CBC.
Earlier this month, Noem visited the library and pushed her boss’ talking points in a bizarre stunt.
She reportedly stepped back and forth across the border within the library. On the American side, wearing a grin, she said, “U.S.A. No. 1.” And on the Canadian side, Noem said, “The 51st state.”
As long as I can remember there have been times when this country has done things that angered me, that embarrassed me. But I have never been embarrassed to be an American. Until now.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month.
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
21 Mar 2025, 5:12 pm
Besides Israel, what is in your opinion "satellite countries" to the US?
(hahaha)
