Dougie93

The United States did not violate national/international law and the laws of armed conflict by invading Afghanistan per se, that was backed up by several international mandates, the legality issue starts with the United States giving terrorists legitimacy by arresting them and charging them as civil criminals. See, terrorists have no standing under the laws of armed conflict on the battlefield, so the United States could have charged them thusly and had them executed as unlawful combatants, but, that's a very old statute, and in this day and age, politically radioactive, so instead the United States charged them with other crimes, split the baby, at which point you have to treat them as de facto POW's under Geneva, which the United States did not do, ergo, legal jeopardy, war crime. POW's under Geneva have a lot of rights, you can't even put them in civilian jail, civilian jail is a war crime if imposed on a lawful combatant in a war, they have to put in special POW camps where they get all sorts of privileges and whatnot and can pretty much run their own affairs inside the camp as a de facto military unit, like Hogan's Heroes kind of thing. So if you invade Afghanistan under the laws of armed conflict, so be it, but then you have to operate under the laws of armed conflict, you can't go back and forth and have it both ways, US domestic criminal law cannot be imposed on combatants in a war, because war itself, is not actually illegal, thus there is only two options, you either charge them as unlawful combatants and shoot them, or you treat them as POW's with all that that entails, because under Geneva, any civilians you intern have to be treated as de facto POW's, which, yes, international law is capricious, but it is what it is. So, if you run a concentration camp like Gitmo, you're doing what the Nazis did on the Eastern Front basically "extra-judicial black hole", and whatever justifications the Americans have invoked, rest assured the Nazi's invoked all those justifications as well "new kind of war, old rules don't apply, blah, blah, blah"

Bear in mind though, I don't think we're there yet, but if we are in fact witnessing the break up of Chimerica, then yes, that would mean we are going to back to cold war, with all that that entails, to include realpoiltik by two stage fission-fusion tritium boosted critical mass.

I included the caveat of asymmetrical nuclear weapons as a nod to India, because India is actually China's primary adversary, so in extremis, India could give the Chinese pause by those means.

Well, folks these days like to say "America is no longer the leader of the free world!", which, if that is the case, they should prepare themselves to start sucking some Chinese dick, because absent the Leader of the Free World, China can pretty much do whatever the fuck they want, that's how big they are now.

The reality is, absent the asymmetrical use of nuclear weapons, the United States is the only country with the leverage to stand up to China, because the EU is not a country, and Russia, while heavily armed, is an economic pipsqueak.

And that is basically his only leverage, and as it is a PM's only leverage, should be reserved for when they really need it rather than for this.

Bottom line, people who are waiting for a Canadian Prime Minister to act tough, talk tough, or take any hard line at all, with either of the two global military and economic superpowers, simply have an inflated sense of Canada's importance and leverage, and so should not hold their breath.

That's not how the office of Prime Minister works, Trudeau is not King, he can't order people around like that. It's not an official delegation, they're traveling as private citizens, there's no Oval Office in Canada, Prime Ministers can't just go around denying people exit from Canada with no legal basis.

I don't believe the SCC ruling is why they settled, I believe they settled because Kadr's lawyers asserted that Canada had entered into a conspiracy with the United States to keep Kadr in Gitmo indefinitely, that's why they amended their submission to up the damages sought to $20 million, apparently the government did not want this conspiracy case to go to court at all, for whatever reason, so they quickly settled to make it go away.

Back in the 80's when I joined, we still had a lot of the WWII vets around, and the ones who served in my regiment tended to agree that they were just bored sick of the Depression and desperate to get out of Canada to have some adventures, so, kind of war enthusiasts in a way.

"The issue will have little resonance outside of the London area and could actually help Trudeau elsewhere." I just looked it up, it's not just 1850 jobs in London, the supply chain supports 13,500 jobs, 240 suppliers in London, 500 suppliers nation wide. And it's not just losing jobs by the vagaries of the market, this would be families, right across the country, losing their jobs, by direct and deliberate government intervention, to send those jobs to Trumpland instead, just to appease a bunch of far left virtue signalling kooks, having absolutely no impact on the Saudis whatsoever.

Obvious bullshit is obvious, whatever the penalties are, they are going to be insignificant in comparison to the $30 billion and rising deficit the Liberals are running now, and nobody who would vote for these Liberals gives a rats ass about fiscal discipline, unless there was an inflation crisis, Canadians never vote against waste, if you say that sending 1800 jobs from Ontario down to the other GDLS factory in Toledo Ohio is going to have no effect, I'm not buying he's going to suffer any consequences for a few hundred million in cancellation penalties. Fiscal discipline is not Trudeau's brand and Trudeau lefties don't care about wasting vast amounts of money, Trudeau's brand is good paying jobs for the middle class, and like I said, it's not just that London is going to lose those jobs, the Americans are going to move them to America and build the vehicles for the Saudis there. This is why cancelling the contract is virtue signalling, because the Saudis are getting the vehicles, it's just a question as to whether American workers build them or Canadian workers build them, so other than purity spiraling, cancelling the contract has no practical effect except driving Canadian jobs to America.

What are you blabbering on about? What do the Americans have to do with the Republic of Quebec?

In the post industrial information age, there's no reason to join the Americans, the whole you need to be a big country thing is going away, you don't need to join a big country, just be a Singapore of your very own, what I'm selling is you can have your cake and eat it too, the Dominion of Nova Scotia; just write your own rules, if you want American style rules, nobody can stop you anymore once de-Confederation frees you from Ottawa and the rest of us.

Not to mention that, strong message is a delusion, either Canada defies the Americans and releases Meng Wanzhou, or we are going to be getting the stick from the Chinese and they ain't gonna stop, strong message ain't gonna do shit, the Chinese will just send that right back at'chas ten times over.

The delegation that went to China were not sent by the Government, those are MP's not under the control of Trudeau deciding to go on their own, so I can't hold him nor the Government responsible for that.

Well, Peacekeeping has already been examined, and as a result and for all intents and purposes, we don't do it anymore. Not even in Mali., because that's not Peacekeeping what they are doing there, the African Union forces are doing the UN Chapter 6 Peacekeeping mission, and even the small casevac unit we have there now is actually being pulled out early.

Okay, then why hasn't he cancelled the contract already?

Scheer's chances get exponentially better if Trudeau goes and cancels that GDLS-C contract, because it's not just going to be Londoners who will be enraged, that's the kind of thing that could very well swing Ontario and thus the election Mind you, I have the way out for Trudeaupe; just come out and say that the current LAV 6 the Canadian Army is using is no longer survivable against emerging threats, which is true, so Canada will be cancelling the Saudi contract, but fear not, to replace that contract Canada will be purchasing the latest GDLS Piranha 5 mounted close combat vehicles to replace them over the next decade, with Lance modular turrets and AMAP-ADS active protection systems to be added at Rheinmetall Canada in St.Jean Quebec, contract for Ontario and contract for Quebec, win-win.

Nobody outside of Canada cares, there's no black eye, the only downside is that the point of the Saudis spreading these contracts around is to buy influence, thing is tho, MBS went and blew that up when they went on a tirade against Canada and told us to go fuck ourselves. Now they have no influence, and yet they still want the vehicles, I'm not going to vote to throw 1800 people out of a decade of work just to appease virtues signalers, all of them in Canada.

The Americans produce about ten million of those barrels a day from the shale reserve, roughly 3.7 billion per year, 3.7 trillion is 1000 times that, thus, at current production rates; 1000 years worth of shale in the US reserve.

And frankly, I should be thanking the Trudeaupes, because the thing that will put it over the top next time, the thing they didn't have last time, will be immigration. The Pequistes will rise again and win, to wall themselves off from the brown hordes and mooslambs at their gates, vive le Quebec, vibe le Quebec libre!

I don't need Canadians, all I need is the Pequistes in Quebec, they will rise again, it's just a matter of time, they go on a cycle in Quebec and wheel will come round again, came damn close last time, next time will be the trick, once the core is ripped out of the East, it will all come apart at the seams and there will be no putting humpty dumpty back together again. Mind you, after the nations in Confederation find out that Ottawa was the thing which was the source of their rage and retrograde economy, they wont want to put it back together again.

Again, everybody should loathe democracy, except for the non violent peaceful transfer of power, the rest of it is a clown show, democracy is not the best option, its just the least worst option.

Also, if the "Climate Scientists!" are correct, Canada wont be around in a hundred years; wiped out by Malthusian Climate Change, remember?