Raymond J. de Souza: Lessons for Trump from the Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal is seen in a file photo from Ottawa. Photo by TONY CALDWELL/ Postmedia

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A quarter century back, the Americans — with their NATO allies — launched Operation Enduring Freedom, the post-9/11 invasion of Afghanistan.

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Contrary to form, the otherwise grandiose Donald Trump launched the mere Project Freedom on Monday to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. Nothing enduring about it — he called it off on Tuesday, as he had no NATO allies in the effort, and his staunch Gulf allies, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, refused him use of their bases and airspace to carry it out.

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Feverish diplomacy ensued — with the Saudis, not the Iranians. By week’s end, the Saudis and Kuwaitis had granted permission for operations to resume. (When Project Freedom was rendered Project Futile by their initial refusal, they realized that further embarrassing Trump was not in their interest.) It would be comical if so much suffering had not been caused by the closure of the strait, from stranded mariners to Asian energy rationing.

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All of which brings to mind the Rideau Canal, the construction of which began 200 years ago this fall.

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King Charles, during his recent Washington visit, cracked a joke about the War of 1812, and how the British/Canadian forces burned the White House in 1814, sending First Lady Dolly Madison fleeing the executive mansion, having given instructions to save the portrait of George Washington. All Brits and Canadians like to remind Americans of that, so why not the King of them both?

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My Saturday companion in these pages, Conrad Black, in the recent third volume (1661-1914) of his Political and Strategic History of the World — 960 pages! — characterized the War of 1812 as “farcical in its beginning and often in between,” but that “the participant in the late conflict that had the best war was Canada.”

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(I shall return to his monumental authorial achievement in the coming weeks.)

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A good war does not guarantee a good peace, or even a good post-war. Canada survived being gobbled up by the Americans 50 years before Confederation, but its continued survival was precarious.

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The point of maximum vulnerability was the St. Lawrence River, which from Lake Ontario to Cornwall formed the border between what is now Ontario and New York State. In the case of any hostilities, American forces on the south shore of the St. Lawrence could easily sink any British/Canadian ship, rendering the river unnavigable, and cutting off the largest city, Montreal, from important ports in Kingston and Toronto.

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As Trump is discovering in the Persian Gulf, one side cannot control a joint waterway easily without occupying the other side, or without massive force capable of subduing forces on the other shore. Hence Project Freedom required not only U.S. navy ships to escort freighters and tankers, but significant cover from the air force.

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Saudi Arabia and Kuwait initially refused the necessary bases and airspace because a strait only opened by overwhelming and expensive force is not really an open strait. It remains hostage to Iranian hostility, and as long as the Iranian regime remains, that hostility endures.