Armies, Frontiers, and National Security: Supplemental

This is just a supplementary post to that last one because I’ve just found out that it gets better. The US coast guard has apparently for a few months been patrolling the great lakes (4 out of 5 of which are half Canadian/half American – that is, half are Canadian waters, half are American waters) are now armed with machine guns. What’s even better is that they’ve conducted live action exercises which have involved the firing of thousands of lead bullets into the lakes. I would also like to point out that that something like 40 million people use the water of the lakes as drinking water.

There’s another juicy tidbit. The US and Canada had signed a treaty following the cessation of hostilities in the War of 1812 which forbade the use of weapons in the Great Lakes. Well, I guess the concern was, and I quote (from a newspaper article), “That treaty, the argument goes, was drafted to ensure peace in the Great Lakes by forbidding weapons of war such as cannons on sailing ships”. So, it follows tha the Americans are therefore wary of ships with canons sailing across the great lakes. Or, something like that.

Now, I’m not sure what’s worse about all of this. The fact that it’s happening, or that most Canadians aren’t as shocked and alarmed about all of this as I am.

: 28 Sep 2006 12:13 |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem