Forget Canada. Better invade Venezuela first!

Question: Why do some Canadians want Mr Trump to invade Venezuela?

- Gwynne Dyer

Answer: Because if Mr Trump invades Venezuela first, he'll get bogged down in that war and never get around to invading Canada.

Actually, most Canadians are not thinking that, because Venezuela is not even on their mental maps, and they are not convinced that Mr Trump would ever really invade Canada. The US president talks about strangling Canada economically and forcing it to surrender that way, but the only places he has literally threatened with invasion are Greenland and Panama.

Nevertheless, this discussion is overdue because a US invasion of Venezuela would probably end up as a long and dirty guerrilla war. Eight million Venezuelans have left the country, and at least half of the rest would love to see the end of Nicolas Maduro’s regime, but that leaves up to 14 million people who might decide to resist an American invasion.

Donald Trump is doing everything possible to look like he is serious about overthrowing Mr Maduro's regime by force. Since the beginning of September, there has been an unprecedented growth in the number and variety of US naval and air assets in the southern Caribbean.