US and Canada (Great Allies?)

[jayswin]

...and it's nice to see the responses in this thread towards the States. Yes, some Americans are ignorant, but there's nothing worse than Canadians who call American, as a whole, ignorant, while being ignorant themselves.

Americans are awesome, and we need them, and they're the biggest reason why we have what we have here.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by tjinaz

Something ... something... softwood lumber....

and if Cretien had any balls all he would have had to do is start slapping heavy export fees on all that electricity that BC exports to California. that situation was all about how utterly gutless our political leadership was, not how much leverage the US could actually pull on Canada

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by narbeZ

The second being: The US has lost the last 4 wars they have been involved in.

Not to be petty but I do believe the the States won both Gulf wars pretty handedly. In fact, in Desert Storm, the ground campaign only took 100hrs....

(lost Vietnam, stalemate Korea)

[MJM]

Originally Posted by csnarpy

Not to be petty but I do believe the the States won both Gulf wars pretty handedly. In fact, in Desert Storm, the ground campaign only took 100hrs....

(lost Vietnam, stalemate Korea)

I don't think it's fair to say they lost those wars. The US could win any war they wanted to if they didn't have to appease some within their own country and the rest of the UN.

They fight with a different set of rules than their opponent. Civilian casualties, interrogation, etc. all deemed unacceptable to the US, but in general the people they are fighting gorilla warfare with no regard for human life and no desire to spare anyone in their way (civilian or not)

It would be a different story in Iraq/Afghanistan if the US could just start dropping bombs everywhere, and annihilating a few city blocks immediately after a roadside bombing.

[Daradon]

Your (OP's) friends comments are idiotic. And this is coming from someone who has been very critical of US policy.

Not only do they show they know nothing of history, they know nothing of the present.

[Delthefunky]

Originally Posted by csnarpy

Not to be petty but I do believe the the States won both Gulf wars pretty handedly. In fact, in Desert Storm, the ground campaign only took 100hrs....

(lost Vietnam, stalemate Korea)

I believe the US lost the lives of 79 troops in that war... Bill Hicks has a pretty funny skit about how it wasn't even a war, because a war is when 2 sides are fighting.

The vulnerability due to the sheer size of Canada raises some good points. I once worked up in the arctic, and that was when it hit home just how big our country is. I was north of 60, and not even half way up Canada yet. That it just keeps going and going as a barren tundra is almost overwhelming to think about.

[JD]

Over here in the UAE, they mostly view Canadians and Americans as the same. We dress the same, talk the same (for the most part), do business in the same way. Why would we side with two countries we have very little in common with over a country we have almost everything in common with? The petty differences between Canadians and Americans are very insignificant in comparison to the similarities.

I think that with the bombardment of American culture in our media, we Canadians tend to search for those little things that set us apart. In our minds, those little things tend to be bigger than they really are.

[Vulcan]

A history of US military interventions. There's a lot.

http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/gros...rventions.html

[SeeBass]

Originally Posted by MJM

All I have to say about this is

With 2 million barrels of oil a day going from Canada to the US a day, the only one of the two who could LITERALLY shut one down, is Canada.

And if the US doesn't want that oil, China certainly does.

None of this will ever happen, but don't think for a second the US could do anything monetarily against us that couldn't easily be counteracted by Canada.

I think you are dreaming. If we tried that we would be called Greater Montana before lunch

Seriously dude do you really think that the country that would suffer first or most would be the US?

If we dont sell them oil they can buy it elsewhere too. We are convienent not irreplaceable.

Sorry fella you have an over inflated view of Canada's value.

[MJM]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

I think you are dreaming. If we tried that we would be called Greater Montana before lunch

Seriously dude do you really think that the country that would suffer first or most would be the US?

If we dont sell them oil they can buy it elsewhere too. We are convienent not irreplaceable.

Sorry fella you have an over inflated view of Canada's value.

WHere exactly are they going to buy it? From their buddies in the middle east?

Oil is a finite resource. You can't just switch stores like a supermarket. I have no doubt they'd eventually get it from us, but the short-term impact would be just as huge as any monetary attack they could put on us.

[amorak]

I hate Russia and China, so now the world is in balance, Ying and Yang.

[SeeBass]

Originally Posted by MJM

WHere exactly are they going to buy it? From their buddies in the middle east?

Oil is a finite resource. You can't just switch stores like a supermarket. I have no doubt they'd eventually get it from us, but the short-term impact would be just as huge as any monetary attack they could put on us.

Why wouldn't they buy it from the Middle East?
If we are the new enemy buy it elsewhere. If they hate us so bad for this to be an action then perhaps they hate us more now than Venezula or Russia.
There is plenty of oil you just have to be willing to pay more than the other guy and the US can still do that.
A monetary crash would destroy our country. I dont think you realize the impact. Imagine a 20cent dollar overnight. Now go to the grocery store and try and buy something from outside our borders you couldnt afford it. Now think of everything else imported costing 5 times as much. We are a resource driven nation we would be screwed way beyond us cutting off the oil they need.
The US threatended the British during the Suez crisis and they backed off they get it.

Canada has a couple of cards to play but the US could crush us economically in so many ways.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by tjinaz

Something ... something... softwood lumber....

Just a good example of the Americans not living up to an agreement and another reason we shouldn't be trusting them. Our aims and theirs are no longer the same.

[PIMking]

I love Canada. Some things I'm not to up to date about (mainly politics) but don't get me wrong. I want to kick your snow loving asses in every sport that we play you in.

I almost see the two countries not as brothers but as cousins, two different families but pretty much the same thing.

[tjinaz]

Why wouldn't they buy it from the Middle East?
If we are the new enemy buy it elsewhere. If they hate us so bad for this to be an action then perhaps they hate us more now than Venezula or Russia.
There is plenty of oil you just have to be willing to pay more than the other guy and the US can still do that.
A monetary crash would destroy our country. I dont think you realize the impact. Imagine a 20cent dollar overnight. Now go to the grocery store and try and buy something from outside our borders you couldnt afford it. Now think of everything else imported costing 5 times as much. We are a resource driven nation we would be screwed way beyond us cutting off the oil they need.
The US threatended the British during the Suez crisis and they backed off they get it.

Canada has a couple of cards to play but the US could crush us economically in so many ways.

The other very important missing part is.... number one. If the US suddenly decided to stop buying Canadian Oil who is going to refine it? Refineries are tuned to refine certain types of oil which ones are tuned for Canadian oil? Hmmmm. It is like Chavez threatening to stop sending Oil to the US. Who else is set up to refine Venezuelan oil? They would ruin their own economy.

Also the US has a ton of Oil, the problem is not that they don't have it, it is that it would cost more to tap into it than the cost on the open market. It is not cost efficient. If the global price of oil rose or new technology was created to develop those resources they would start producing. There are whole sections of Alaska that are oil rich but not developed due to environmental concerns. You are kidding yourself if you think stopping the flow of oil from Canada would impact the US more than Canada.