America: A Nation of Ingrates.

Trump’s Declaring Canada An Enemy of the United States Is An Incredibly Hateful Act.

June 6, 1944: 500 Canadian paratroopers dropped with the 82d and 101st Airborne divisions behind beaches of Normandy. 14,000 more Canadian soldiers stormed Juno Beach. Hundreds of Canadians died in just the first few days of the Normandy invasion.

Korea 1950–1953: While Canada did not really have a dog in this fight, the nation sent over 26,000 soldiers to fight side by side with their American allies. Over 500 Canadians would make the ultimate sacrifice in this war fought mostly for American interests.

Iran November 1979: When the American Embassy was seized by Iran almost the entire embassy staff was held hostage for over a year. Almost, but not quite all. In what became known as The Canadian Caper six American diplomats managed to make their way to the Canadian Ambassador. At great personal risk the Canadian Ambassador, and another Canadian Embassy official, hid the Americans in their personal homes for over two months. The Canadians and the CIA eventually smuggled the Americans out of the country using false passports.

At the time, Americans expressed their gratitude to the Canadian people and government.

September 11, 2001: 24 Canadians were killed with the thousands of Americans in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The United States shut down its airports. Numerous international flights already en route to the United States had to land somewhere else. Many of them landed in Canada. Here scores of such stranded planes line up on the runway of the small airport and town of Halifax in Canada.

Hundreds of such planes landed in Canada, often at small airports. Thousands of American found themselves stranded, many of them in small Canadian towns.

In some of the most heartwarming stories you will ever hear, the Canadian people took them in. The small town of Gander, with a population of barely 10,000, took 7,000 Americans into their homes. The Canadians treated the American refugees with open hearts, serving them elaborate meals, even loaning them their cars.

Afghanistan 2001–2013: Canada’s assistance to the U.S. did not stop with the immediate compassion of its people. Canadian troops, some 40,000 of them over the course of 12 years, travelled to Afghanistan to fight with America against the terror of Al Qaeda. 165 of those Canadians returned home only in coffins.

One can fairly say that anything Canada might owe the United States has been more than paid for in Canadian blood.

America Today.

Yet the President of the United States now declares Canada an enemy, and not just any enemy, an enemy that is a threat to the national security of the United States. Trump claims this is because Canada sells us steel and aluminum.

Congress passed a law stating the President could impose tariffs on nations whose trade practices represent a threat to the national security of the United States. The law was obviously intended to punish enemies of America. Instead, President Trump is using it to attack our closest allies. The list of nations Trump has deemed such threats now includes, not only Canada, but Great Britain, France and Germany.

To treat friends as enemies is to make enemies of friends.

The President uses Twitter to rail at the supposed unfair trade practices of these nations. Have you heard the President actually specify a single unfair trade practice from Canada? Asking for a Canadian friend.

Will the President’s tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum help the U.S. steel and aluminum industries? Absolutely. However, by raising the price for those materials, it will do so at the expense of every industry in the United States that uses steel or aluminum. From cars to refrigerators, such industries (and the Americans employed in them), will find themselves less competitive in the international market. Because they will be more expensive for Americans to buy, less of these steel and aluminum products will be sold in the U.S. as well. Dear MAGA-chanting Americans, whatever tiny tax break you received will be more than eaten by increased prices associated with tariffs.

Yet we Americans seem remarkably accepting of our President’s comically absurd claim that Canada is a threat to our national security. This particular absurdity seems to have just been lost among all the others, like evangelicals endorsing a President who had an affair with a porn star, or a President who doesn’t know the words to God Bless America attacking the patriotism of the NFL Champion Philadelphia Eagles.

The same President who ignores, even flatly denies, the very real national security threat of Russian government meddling in our last election, has fabricated that Canada selling us steel and aluminum is a national security threat. It’s surreal. What do you expect from a President so stupid that he tells the Canadian Prime Minister that Canada once burned Washington D.C.?

The short memory, and ignorance of history, of the American people has turned us into a nation of ingrates. Canada, its government and its people, deserve to be treated better by the United States than our President is treating it.