{"id":193987,"date":"2026-09-03T04:40:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/193987\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T04:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:40:28","slug":"commander-suggests-u-s-war-on-martians-as-likely-as-an-invasion-of-canada-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/193987\/","title":{"rendered":"Commander suggests U.S. war on &#8216;Martians&#8217; as likely as an invasion of Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>VICTORIA \u2014 A top American military commander on Wednesday suggested the United States is about as likely to invade Canada as it is to launch an attack on Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, was asked by a reporter at a news conference in Victoria whether he would ever follow an order from President Donald Trump to invade Canada.<\/p>\n<p>The admiral quickly dismissed the question.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find that scenario to be absolutely and utterly preposterous. I follow the orders of the commander-in-chief but that is a needlessly emotional question,\u201d he replied to the journalist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWould you ask me please, also, what my attack plans are for the Martians?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paparo said he follows the president\u2019s orders but Canada remains a \u201cclose\u201d and \u201cindispensable\u201d ally to the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of annexing Canada and making it a U.S. state as he wages his ongoing trade war. But Trump also has said it\u2019s \u201chighly unlikely\u201d he would ever use military force to annex Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the political turmoil over trade, Paparo said military-to-military relations between the two countries remain strong and \u201cwithout emotion,\u201d which is how militaries are meant to function.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile you do see political discussions take place, for military professionals, we\u2019re always ruthlessly focused on the mission ahead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis professional ethos of (an) apolitical military is really so common throughout the Indo-Pacific and throughout the world, and that\u2019s how we deal with the ups and downs of political discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paparo was in Victoria for the 28th annual Indo-Pacific chiefs of defence conference, which he is co-hosting with Canada\u2019s Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Canadian Press Staff, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n<p>Add CityNews Kitchener as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=kitchener.citynews.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-trusted-source-badge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788410428_945_google-trusted-badge.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"198\" height=\"63\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VICTORIA \u2014 A top American military commander on Wednesday suggested the United States is about as likely to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,290],"class_list":["post-193987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}