Security Debate Puts U.S.-Canada Border in Focus

The U.S. presidential campaign has provoked debate about security on the southern border with Mexico. But the dividing line with Canada is also attracting greater scrutiny amid growing worries about global terrorism and the northern border's vulnerability to illegal crossings. Photo: Chester Dawson for the Wall Street Journal.

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[dwaynewladyka]

There are vast amounts of farmland between Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. Too difficult to patrol this part of the Canada/US border.

[moosefactory]

On google Earth I found a few places in northwest Montana where you can enter Canada by gravel roads with no border patrol. You can clearly see it from the Canadian side on google street view. I could not believe it.

[asdf]

As someone who lives in a country that doesn't share a land border with any other country (Australia), I have always been interested in how countries that do share land borders mark out the border between them, and the way that people are allowed to cross the border.

[kentvene.]

I live in Maine and I took a new trip along the Canadian border literally right in the river that forms the Canadian border it's called the St Croix River and you can literally kayak or canoe from one side to the other without any interference from anyone nobody was asking us what we were doing or where we were going it seems strange considering we were sleeping on a Canadian side one night sleeping on the American side the next night during the canoe trip. It's very vulnerable not to mention it's not the southern border that is important militarily. If we had a major invasion coming from Russia or China which are the only forces that are really capable of invading us effectively or inflicting heavy casualties they would come through Canada they would not come through mexico. If they were able to seize the elutin islands and were somehow able to hop to Anchorage and take Anchorage and secure the airspace and keep our navel forces at Bay as well as perhaps in conjunction with a some Cyber attack they could render us incapable of preventing them from a massive forces in Alaska. If they get the port of Anchorage they then can bring ships filled with troops filled with armor assets anti-aircraft assets as well as aircraft themselves and the ability to have a place on our continent where they can refuel aircraft and launch attacks via aircraft from there from there they could fight and push their way south and they may lose but American citizens with their precious little freedoms in their silly little bubble would certainly see combat even if it was from their own homes there would be no safety along that border it would be a war zone. And it is largely not defended unfortunately when I was in the army all of the emphasis was on counterterrorism and on clearing buildings on the things that you're going to be doing on a deployment route clearance route security never did we even discuss securing our borders as in something that we would ever have to do because when it comes to immigration I agree the military is not an immigration authority but the military is the entity that would be responsible for repelling an enemy attack that historically includes crossing borders and I will say that if they were able to take the port of Anchorage which is not far from that or us it would at the very least be a heavy brutal fight to save our country and that's if we could with it I think we probably could but Canada would likely lose large amounts of people it's just awful and the fact that I was in a tank unit for 3 years and I never once received any training in tank on tank warfare it was always tank on building tank on troops coax on troops heat round on building identified yada yada meters on the way boom you know it was only a gunner that we would ever even train for tank on tank warfare and it was minimal compared to just the counterinsurgency stuff that we did constantly. That is the only kind of warfare that I know much about but I know how we were able to invade Iraq for example I know how we were able to invade Afghanistan. Mainly using the way that Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded you can logically draw a picture of what an invasion of our country or an attempted invasion might look like and I'm sure that people far above my pay grade are thinking of these things or were thinking of these things but honestly it should be filtering down to the soldiers in the line units because at any moment we could have been pulled out of Iraq we could have been pulled out of Afghanistan we could have been pulled out of training for Iraq and Afghanistan and be forced to defend our borders this could have occurred at any time of year say they were trying to cross over into Montana or another very rural very harsh and cold part of this country after a Cyber attack and it happened very suddenly. They could theoretically knock down our ability to detect incoming aircrafts a Cyber attack would leave us very vulnerable to a physical attack or an invasion essentially we would have about the same capabilities in detecting the location of the enemy as they did back in world war I. Meaning that if the port of Anchorage Alaska was seized and held and enough troops were transported there enough armor assets and they started to push South and West and East cutting through Canada rural areas mainly and I'm not discounting the Canadian armed forces but I don't think that they are particularly focused on this threat either I mean especially if it was a swift assault just like it was in Iraq and armored wave centered on Baghdad for example say they took away Anchorage and used it as a staging point their next logical stop would be Seattle then they would have in their hands a US city they would have fort Lewis to contend with but if they were able to successfully quell fort Lewis there is not much in the way of armor assets with the exception of national guard units which may be anywhere at any given time as maybe half of fort Lewis it would be a fight at the very least and it would be a fight that Americans would not be able to sit at home and watch on TV. American kids would have to actually see what Iraqi kids have had to see for the past two decades or what German families and British families had to do during the blitzkrieg and during other battles of world war II those locals are not untouched by the war

[JustAnotherNamelessGuy]

build a wall on Canadian border?
Cmon bruh thats like not cool man

[AllanLoveJr]

Your a prisoner in your own country. God gave this land to the White people. He said nothing about dividing the land to cause everyone to become a "Prisoner". And now look where it got us.

[nameless_no_name]

Not possible to truly protect that border.
The Canadian standards via CBSA scrutiny is high. Their guards are highly trained and educated. Most of them have university degrees in addition to professional security training

[kentvene.]

But I think it's a major mistake to focus on the Mexican border only. It's not important militarily it's important in a law enforcement sense but not in a military sense the Canadian border is more important militarily. Honestly I think that we should have if we can't build a wall at the very least we should have some sort of detection or patrols that are impenetrable by Cyber attack. Even if that means convoys of Humvees and mraps patrolling the Canadian border and talking with Canadian authorities and maybe having them do the same thing the best wall is a simple road. Anyone can climb a fence that's hundred miles from the nearest ice checkpoint but not anybody can cross the road when you have a convoy of Humvees and perhaps even some armor assets so that even if they knocked out the internet any entire country knocked out any chance of a GPS or location on enemy forces our soldiers would be up there anyway simply driving back and forth doing perimeter patrol each state would have a field office or something each border state and in places where the border is a river have soldiers and boats be doing patrols or build a road on our side of the border this is nothing against Canadians this has to do with the fact that the only way we could be invaded by China or Russia is via Canada that is the only way. A Cyber attack followed by occupation of the alumin islands and eventually Anchorage using acreage as a staging point much as the US used Kuwait

[kentvene.]

And all Trump is thinking about when he said that was immigration issues he wasn't thinking about what would be much worse. I would rather have a bunch of illegal immigrants surrounding me wanting work then to have Russian troops or Chinese troops rolling up in tanks ordering people out of their houses I'm putting us all in freaking pens like in Red Dawn. What do you think happens in Iraq? I mean do you think that it's nice for the people who accidentally get too close during rush hour traffic to a convoy a zipper pattern gets shot in front of their car it can ricochet up and hit them the next rounds go into their engine block and the next rounds go into the driver. I simply think that it would destroy our country Americans are too proud but also too distant from the realities of the world in order to come together in a giant insurgency if that were to happen because if we were occupied by China or Russia the right thing to do to save America would be to look to the very people we were fighting in the Middle East use their tactics if we ever get occupied that will be the only thing possible. Imagine black white asian native American every American regardless of race or gender coming together for a single cause to get our country back from an invader. The only way if they were to make it across the Canadian border would be for every American to set aside their differences and take part in a large scale massive insurgency utilizing everything with the Iraqi insurgency used. It would take roadside bombs for Russian convoys or Chinese convoys it would take RPG it would take 84 or whatever we can get our hands on if America is ever occupied the only way to get it back is to fight back so maybe we should consider having our military be more refocused on defending. Because when I was in the military like I said the focus was very far away

[kevinlau]

Canada should pay for the northern wall as well.

[kylepasta]

There are a few roads I know of that are unpatrolled along Canada US border
And we have a large Muslim population (scary)
So yes Canada poses a threat.

[siggizippan]

We, Canadians should build a wall at our border to the US and we have the US pay for it. I wonder how you like that?

[Ruvi]

Only 25, 000 Refugees that nothing, my country took in over 1.7 million and we're fine