"Accident of geography" Agreed. But still part of the equation. There is no way that the US would allow Canada to be attacked or invaded without US response or involvement, even if only because of self interest due to the accident of geography. All countries are pretty much like that, I should imagine. You try to keep your enemies at a distance.

In those same self interests, there is no way Japan would have been as prosperous post-WWII if she had had to have a standing army. It is easy to criticize a country's war-mongering if you yourself don't have to do it because they are doing it. If you follow that convolution.

I sound like I am anti-Canada. I am not. But as a Yank I get tired of hearing Canadians moan about what the US is doing to their country- when the fact is that it is NOT the US doing it. Got a McDonald's in town? A Walmart? It was a Canadian who invited them in - on the same basis of self interest as the franchise itself.

The other side of that coin being presented is that Canada is this nation that has these good instincts and the sense to follow them. I talked with a lot of Canadians as I made my way from Windsor/Toronto to Prince Rupert- good people, interesting people, people I enjoyed talking with. But they were not necessarily any more good, interesting or enjoyable than the people I talked with on the US side of the border. Or not even necessarily more informed. I talked with one young man who lives in the bush in Quebec and there was no disputing his take on things that the US does, has done and will do. Incidentally, he too had the story of the US military handing out smallpox-laden blankets to our indigenous people. Although he had it as a recent event.

(In this country we have heard a story of tuberculous-impregnated blankets being donated to the Alaska natives. I don't necessarily believe either side of that story.)

The War of 1812 invasion. Ha. Almost two hundred years ago and it is still being used as a measure of how dangerous it is to live next to the USA?