Behind Closed Doors, Trudeau Says Trump Threat to Take Over Canada Is Real

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

76. I'd expect them to fight smart

There wouldn't be any shortage of soldiers ready to die to defend the nation. But throwing lives away is stupid. I'd expect fighting retreats from areas in order to save valuable units and gain enough time to regroup for a counter attack. Maximize damage where possible and retreat where necessary.

For the Canadians I would expect much of the same. But they have a major numerical disadvantage. They have under 100k total across all branches. The Canadian Army has only around 45k personnel. With 90% of their population living within 150 miles of the US border, their supply lines and logistics base is very concentrated. Defend that area and they put Canadian citizens at risk. Retreat to the vast unpopulated interior of the country and they lose ready access to fuel, ammo, and food stores. Living off the land is entirely possible, but fuel and munitions are going to be harder to come by. Those areas are only going to have a limited supply of that. Even our most rural areas have farms with diesel fuel on hand and ammunition is available pretty much everywhere in the US.

I have never served with Canadians but I have operated with British Royal Marines in Iraq. Excellent personnel. But they suffer from an issue that I hear is common among Commonwealth and most European militaries. They aren't good at improvising and their first instinct when running into a unplanned situation is to hold fast and take up a defensive posture until they can get new orders on what to do. As you probably already know, US forces don't operate that way. Something unplanned happens, we improvise, attack, and continue onto the objective. We give our junior officers and NCO's fairly wide latitude in how to accomplish things. I wouldn't be shocked if Canadians follow the Commonwealth mindset.