When people show you who they are, believe them.

Take, for example, US Pacific Command Adm. Samuel Paparo, who recently told a reporter he would follow orders issued by his commander in chief to invade Canada, even as he dismissed the idea as “preposterous.”

Standing beside Paparo was Gen. Jennie Carignan, Canada’s highest ranking military officer.

Much of the reporting afterwards has focused on Paparo’s statement, as well as his blithe dismissal of the reporter’s questions. What hasn’t been addressed is that Canada’s top soldier stood there, unflinching and silent, saying nothing at all while the prospect of an American invasion was discussed.

Not even a morale-boosting “we’ll give as good as we get,” or a smart-assed “I’m sure Washington D.C. would love to be liberated by us right now.”

The fact that Paparo admitted he would blindly follow the orders of the American president is itself revealing. This is the same administration who ordered a purge of their military’s top brass and whose illegal and ill-conceived war on Iran has strained the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln to the breaking point.

Those matters notwithstanding, there may be some truth to what Paparo said: a full-scale American invasion of Canada is extremely unlikely to occur. Invasions and occupations are costly undertakings, and as former US Permanent Representative to NATO Ivo H. Daalder recently wrote in The Observer, the incompetence of the Trump administration has hollowed out the US military, leaving it “profoundly weaker” than when they took office just 18 months ago. But as Trump has amply demonstrated,........

© National Observer