If the US annexed Canada, would it help alleviate the US's national debt situation?

Allan

It would probably be the beginning of the end for the United States. Canada doesn’t have a huge military, but they have vast amounts of land, lightly populated with stubborn sumbitches who know how to fend off bears.

Major Canadian cities would fall quickly to the overwhelming onslaught of US military might, but a bitter insurgency would spring up across the interior, as guerilla bands emerge from the wilderness to pepper US forces with rifles and improvised explosive devices. The sprawling road network would become too dangerous to traverse, especially in the mountainous west of the continent, where pockets of rebels hunker down for a long resistance. Canada becomes a chain of urban islands in a vast, dangerous wilderness.

Imagine the international outrage if the world’s self-styled superpower made such an aggressive move. We would become a pariah - cut off from commerce, hit with massive sanctions, and penalized in the currency exchange. Our adversaries would be emboldened, and would form new alliances to contain U.S. aggression. Look for skirmishes to pop up in the numerous places we are exposed across the world. Terrorist attacks would increase in frequency against our embassies and military bases.

Despite the new windfall in timber and other natural resources, we would be plunged into a deep depression as firms relying on exports close down. Banks would fail as interest in US securities falls, and the dollar would simultaneously plunge in value against the Euro as countries divest themselves of US currency.

Cut off from international export and financial markets, major Canadian cities would also fall into a deep depression, and the U.S., spread thin between too many military conflicts and hemorrhaging money, would most likely crumble from within and collapse within a few years.

While the other Western powers are grappling with the shift in power, Russia would be emboldened to grab more territory from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Iran and other US foes would take advantage of the power vacuum, seizing the Strait of Hormuz and cutting off the flow of oil from the region. Israel is drawn into a war of attrition, as long-standing resentments boil over into a steady stream of mortar attacks and suicide bombings.

The European Union is racked by competing pressures, as some countries ramp up military activity in the Middle East. Age-old resentments resurface on the European continent, and NATO loses its power to contain Russian expansion.

Meanwhile, India and China finally have the opportunity they are looking for to emerge as international superpowers. As the U.S. crumbles, Asian powers flow across the Pacific, forging powerful alliances in South and Central America, that bring economic development, immigration, and military bases to protect their new allies from the U.S. Russia intervenes in Central America, offering to stabilize Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador from violence.

As the U.S. devolves into anarcho-oligarchy, billionaire robber barons seize the reins of power, and criminal organizations grow in power. Mexico becomes the conduit for illicit American activity, as New York, Chicago, and other major cities are cut off from London and other financial centers. International criminal elements move to Mexico City en masse, and Mexico becomes a lawless place.

David Cannon