Commentary

War is over … If you want it

January 7, 2026

By Nate Smelle

Killing our “enemies” has always been the quickest path to achieve power for the feeble-minded. Fortunately, this road is always culminates at dead end.

It was just after 5 a.m. when I woke to the news of the American invasion of Venezuela. Rubbing my eyes in disbelief, I wondered if I was still dreaming as I absorbed the ominous images of black military helicopters hovering over the city of Caracas, silhouetted by the burning buildings and flashing of rockets and gunfire raining down on the people who call the nation’s capital home.

Listening to the fear in the voices of those filming the attack and the screaming of those in the background, I was suddenly wide awake, despite only having less than two hours of sleep. Watching the invasion unfold on my phone from the comfort of my couch where I had passed out writing around the same time the first bodies fell, I thought of the poor souls who died in their beds as a result of the 2 a.m. assault on the sleeping population.

Lying there in shock, praying it was a nightmare, I switched on the television to find the headline “TRUMP: MADURO AND WIFE “CAPTURED” BY U.S.” at the bottom of the screen. “Captured,” I thought to myself. “What the hell is going on,” I said aloud, turning up the volume. Dumbfounded by the horrific nature of the news entering my brain at such an early hour, I fumbled through my bag looking for my notebook and a pen  to get to work.

Firing up the kettle and filling the coffee press with a healthy 10 scoops, I began taking notes on the criminal invasion and kidnapping that was still unfolding. By the time the coffee had entered my system, I was fully locked in. I spent the next eight hours watching every report on the attack on television, scrolling through every post I could find on my phone.

As I sat there jotting down detail after detail, I was hit with a wave of déjà vu. Unable to recall where it was stemming from, I scanned my memory for clues.

Searching my mind for the seed that sprouted into the feeling consuming in that moment, I thought of the sadness and confusion that most of us felt on Sept. 11, 2001 when we learned of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City. I remembered the pain and horror in the voice of the reporter on the radio as they described the destruction of the Twin Towers and the chaos that ensued.

Could it be the feeling I had as I watched the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel that took the lives of more than 1,200 people in less than 19 hours? Or maybe it was Israel’s genocidal campaign of vengeance that has stolen another 72,000+ Palestinian lives—more than 20,000 of which have been children. Or the fact that it wasn’t so long ago that I was engaged in a similar investigation when the Russian invasion of Ukraine? With both Russian and Ukrainian ancestry in my family, I recall experiencing a sense of dread when I heard the news on Feb. 24, 2022 that was akin to the feeling consuming me early Saturday morning.

I guess the reason why it felt like I had been there before, was because on some levels I had. In fact, everyone reading this today has. Although not all of us are dodging bullets or living in fear that a rocket may kill us in our sleep, throughout our lifetimes we have all been forced to live with war. As I learned from my friends Arne Roosman and Mark Twain, “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.”

South America might seem to be in a galaxy far, far away from South Algonquin; however, as I have pointed out more times than I can count over the past 12+ years, every living thing on Earth is interconnected. Therefore, as I have also said many times before, “What happens in America does not stay in America.” This simple statement holds true whether we are talking about South America or the Divided States of America (formerly known as the U.S.A.).

Maybe we can pretend that everything is fine because we are still able to fall asleep to the sound of howling wolves in North Hastings. But we can only look the other way and bury our heads in the sand for so long. Eventually those wolves will fall silent. And that’s when we need to be ready for an attack in our neck of the woods.

With the ever-increasingly more deranged behaviour of President Donald Trump now manifesting in the form of deadly force around the world in places including but not limited to Venezuela, Nigeria, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and Palestine, we must not dismiss the fact that he is still musing about taking over Canada and making it the “51st state.” No matter how many soccer leagues invent peace prizes to appease this toddler tyrant, neither his words nor his actions have ever matched those of a so called “Peace President.”

“Love is all you need,” sang John Lennon. “Give Peace a Chance!” he demanded in another anti-war anthem. So, how is it, that after all these years of sanctioned mass murder and our awareness of the consequences, we still don’t realize that, as John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s billboard screamed: “War is over … If you want it!”

Given the frequency of these type of threats coming from the Oval Office—a once respected position of power now considered a laughing stock worldwide—they are often ignored and even normalized by our mainstream media. But they are anything but normal. And deep down, even Canadians who once drank the Maple MAGA Kool-Aid are beginning to understand that the con man they worshipped has never been looking out for their best interests, or anyone else’s interests but his own. Perhaps he will pander to those of a select group of billionaires pulling his strings to stay in power. However, as he has shown us with every breath he breathes, he is loyal to one god—and it is not Mother Earth or the father of Jesus—it is the Dark Lord of Greed.

Anyone who still believes otherwise in 2026 needs to put on their red hat, pull up the straps on their golden sneakers, and open up their Trump-endorsed bible to Acts 4:32-35, where it is written: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” I wonder if this is one of the conmander-in-chief south of the border’s favourite passages.

When once powerful countries like the now Divided States of America ignore international law, concentrate wealth and power amongst a select group of billionaires, and normalize the unlawful use of force, our world—including the peaceful quality of life we enjoy in the Bancroft area become less stable. Our sovereignty as a nation relies on the safeguards established through international law, our alliances, and mutual respect among nations. Military strength and the use of force is not, and should never be considered a nation’s only source of power. Although necessary at times for self defense, at its core, the war machine is an instrument of terror that for the sake of our own preservation should only be deployed when confronted with dangerous circumstances. Invading another country and kidnapping its President and First Lady because you allege they are trafficking cocaine, while pardoning the President of another country convicted of trafficking 360+ metric tons of cocaine is not an act of self defence. It is a selfish act and a blatant abuse of power.

As Canadians we value peace and strive to achieve the best quality of life possible for everyone. While throughout history it could have been argued that we shared these values with our American neighbours, this is not the case in 2026. I have many American friends who I respect and cherish; but sadly America under a greed-crazed fascist like Trump is not our friend or ally. The sooner we come to terms with this truth as a nation and start building new alliances and friendships with other countries who believe in the merits of international cooperation, the more hospitable and better our shared future will become.