US President Donald Trump hasn’t yet directly asked Canada for help with the idiotic war he is waging on Iran — at least not as far as we know. But he has appealed to American allies and he’s been told over and over: this is your mess. Canada should say the same.

The relationship between Canada and our largest trading partner is tense right now, to say the least. But the group of US allies has traditionally included our country, so as the war drags on, Canada must be ready with an answer. The hostilities with Iran have already stalled tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, choking off fossil fuel supplies to many countries — including China — and spiking prices worldwide. Protecting tankers and freighters as they traverse the narrow channel is risky, which is why Trump reached out for help to keep the waterway open and more recently has even allowed some Iranian oil tankers safe passage.

Knowing Trump, he wouldn’t hesitate to tie a request for military assistance to future considerations during pending free trade negotiations with Canada. But at this point in his deranged presidency, there’s no way we should trust him to make good on any promise. If the day comes that Prime Minister Mark Carney is asked to join the war or the Hormuz protection brigade, Canada should follow Germany’s lead and respond with a hard no. 

Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius hit it on the head when he said, “This is not our war; we did not start it.” Japan, Italy and Australia have similarly rebuffed the US call for help as it shambles deeper into a conflict with no easy off-ramps.

It’s pretty easy to see why the US is having trouble mustering support for its latest foray into the Middle East political minefield. Few, including Trump’s own top counterterrorism official, believe the president’s justification for the war. Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, resigned today, stating that Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

As for support from other nations, Trump is demanding fealty from the same countries he’s squeezing with unjustified tariffs. Canada, as we know, has been in the US president’s crosshairs since January 2025, when Trump’s second presidential term began. He is actively seeking to crush our automobile industry by imposing tariffs so steep that all Canadian vehicle manufacturing will relocate to the US. He has imposed punishing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum products that in some cases have decreased shipments by as much as 30 per cent. 

Even worse are the constant musings by Trump about making Canada the 51st state and repeated insulting references to Carney being the “future governor of Canada.” With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Even if the friendship weren’t wearing thin, the last thing Canada needs now is its troops engaged in a war halfway around the world that might not even result in the downfall of the religious despots currently ruling Iran. After Israeli bombs killed Iran’s previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country defiantly appointed his son as successor, dashing Trump’s expectations of a quick capitulation. 

There is a decent chance Trump’s war will not achieve its stated objectives and Iran will remain a repressive theocracy — and the destabilization of the entire Middle East with its vast reserves of oil risks sparking a much broader war.

There is no love lost by the vast majority of Canadians for the current Iranian regime, which represses women and has no compunction about jailing, torturing or disappearing its political opponents. Most of us cheer when Iranians take to the streets in Iran, hoping maybe this time, change will come. 

But if there is to be regime change in Iran, it should come from Iranians themselves, not foreign invaders. 

Canada has already paid a steep price for blindly following the US in its vendetta against Iran. When Canada, at the behest of the Americans, arrested Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Chinese tech giant Huawei, China retaliated by kidnapping two Canadians living in China. It is often overlooked that the crime Meng was accused of by the US was skirting its sanctions to do business in Iran. 

It took almost three years to gain the release of the two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and the episode drove a diplomatic rift between China and Canada that is only now beginning to mend. 

Canada has mostly stayed out of US Middle East adventures in the past. We did not declare war on Iraq, with Jean Chretien declining to join a war that was not UN-sanctioned. His decision turned out to be prescient, as it eventually became obvious that the drive to war against Saddam Hussein was based primarily on fabricated evidence. 

In the aftermath of 9/11, we did join the US in Afghanistan. Many Canadians at the time supported that war — at least it wasn’t based on lies — but it was no more successful. The Taliban are now back in power and conditions for the women we sought to liberate are as dismal as they’ve ever been.

The outcome of the war on Iran is equally fraught and uncertain. We should not join this conflict despite our close ties to the US. We should never take orders from the US, a country in thrall to Israel that believes it can’t live with Iran and acts like it can’t live without war. No good can come of that.

© National Observer