As a Canadian-American, this infuriates me. I do understand that the United States has a desperate need right now, but so does Canada. Unlike most nations, the United States has a contractual obligation to help supply Canada in a “war” – as this has been officially declared. (Canada also supplies the United States with many critical supplies needed in this war, just not those masks).

Let me allow a Republican – David Frum, whose wife is Canadian – to explain why this particular “America first” move is very wrong:

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1246076784644444161

And there is the key, this was a formal agreement, and even in a dire emergency – in fact, especially in a dire emergency for both nations – one doesn’t just “drop” agreements like this. They don’t come back, Frum is right, that agreement is now dead letter.

Most Americans don’t know that Canada could shut the lights off in much of the Northeast, much of the power (not all) is generated by Ontario Power and the Quebec power company with Canadian dams and shared on a grid by joint agreement. In fact, during Katrina, I watched utility trucks by the hundreds roll through our streets in Hattiesburg in Southern Miss. They came from just about every state in the east, and from Ontario and Quebec, honoring that agreement, and spent the most money traveling and boarding crews to come down and get the power going again.

Most Americans don’t know that NORAD stands for “North American Air Defense,” and is a joint operation run by both the American and Canadian military. When NORAD was formed, the primary concern was missiles and warplanes flying over the pole from Russia. The U.S. needed radar arrays in the far north – in Canada. It took Canadian and American cooperation. At times, a Canadian officer commanded the entire NATO facility, which is always a mix of Canadian and American military.

This is the way Trump works. He should have been ramping up production for months. As we wrote this morning, the Trump administration had been sending PPE to Thailand and a second delivery had to be halted when they learned of it just a few days ago. Our confusion has exacerbated the problem Canada faces, which isn’t as severe as ours (though they still need masks!).

The bigger point is that Trump lives only for today, and is more than willing to burn bridges with our real allies. But I now ask you this. If somehow Canada were Saudi Arabia, or god-forbid, Russia, would Trump have made the same move? Pffft. Not a chance.

So, the joint defense production agreement could have continued, assessments could have been made regarding who needed what most, and possible limitations on us, things likely could have worked things out together. But with a single order, the whole agreement with Canada is now gone.

Just another big deal, with another big ally, in the move to secure the United States as the third partner (and a junior one) in the Russia-Saudi Arabian-American alliance. Remember, Putin wants NATO weakened. Every infuriating move Trump makes against our allies helps Putin. Trump didn’t want to work around it.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom