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Canada should dump the F 35 supply contract [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-05
Some weeks ago I commented that Canada might seek to cancel their F 35 order. Today in the country’s major Daily there was an Op Ed piece supporting just this notion. Unfortunately it’s behind the pay wall. But I have included the link.
Written by Michael Byers, his logic is quite simple: in summary America is a bad faith dealmaker and newly hostile neighbour.
Here is an excerpt from “It may provoke Trump, but Canada should cancel the purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the U.S.”
www.theglobeandmail.com/...
”Fortunately, there’s a ready alternative to the F-35 that would not effectively be controlled by the United States. In the competition leading up to Canada’s decision to buy the F-35, the Swedish-made Saab Gripen E met all of the technical requirements.
The Gripen E is not as heavily computerized as the F-35. It also lacks stealth technology. But it’s relatively cheap and easy to maintain, able to take off and land on short Arctic runways, and can take care of itself in a dogfight.
What’s more, Saab has committed to building the planes in Canada.
Since that competition was held, Sweden has become a NATO state. Today, the Nordic country is an infinitely more reliable ally than the current version of the United States, which also just levied tariffs on Canada.
It’s true that cancelling the multi-billion-dollar F-35 purchase will annoy and perhaps provoke Mr. Trump. It could even put NORAD, the bilateral North American Aerospace Defence Command, at risk.
But if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had followed the same “do not provoke” logic, he would have kissed Mr. Trump’s feet and signed away the rights to Ukraine’s critical minerals.
Fighter jets are the sharp end of any modern military. No sovereign country would buy ones that a bully of a U.S. president could disable on a whim.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/5/2308223/-Canada-should-dump-the-F-35-supply-contract?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
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