Originally Posted by Kestrel
There is absolutely no parallel. Before the Battle of Quebec:
Battle of Lexington and Concord: April 19, 1775
Battle of Bunker Hill: June 17, 1775
Siege of Boston: April 1775 - March 1776
We were already at war when we invaded Canada
And don't play the idealism card, we weren't trying to bring democracy anywhere. We were trying to keep them from using Canada as a launch point for invasions into New England and to get additional troops via French Canadians. The reasons for the invasion of Canada are not as pure as you would like to think. And, Britain was already a democracy at the time (Parliament, anyone?). We were a colony with no voting rights, which, ironically, is the way the US does business with its territories as well (Puerto Rico, Washington DC, Guam, US Marshall Islands, anyone?).
Edit: And oh, just for the record, a lot of my officer friends are also dubious about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. They are currently there or in Afganistan. I am dubious about the reasons for going to war, but plan on joining in the Navy after graduate school. Doing one's job well != agreeing with the reasons for having to do the job.
Britain was not and isn't a democracy. They are a constitutional monarchy. Big difference. But that makes no difference in my argument.
I wasn't saying we invaded Canada for the same reasons we invaded Iraq, perhaps the phrase about it being parallel got to you.
I simply mean that both the Iraqi and Canadian invasions were done:
- After a major war operation had begun
- To hurt the enemy by hurting a sanctuary of theirs
- To prevent future attacks from that country
The attack on a British fort in Canada can be seen in the same way as I view our attack in Iraq as an attack on a Terrorist fort in the Middle East. Both were pre-emptive in my view. You said it yourself...we attacked Quebec before the British could attack us from there. We wanted to turn the Canadians against the British. Just like we wanted to get Iraq before they attacked us and we wanted to establish democracy in the middle east. End of story.