ANOTHER PIG WAR IN THE MAKING?: Beginning in 1859, the United States and Great Britain fought a war (of sorts) over the boundary between Canada and the United States. At issue was which country owns the San Juan Islands situated between Vancouver Island (Canada) and the Washington State mainland.
In one of the more comical episodes in military history, “the Pig War” (as it was called) was triggered by an actual pig who was trespassing onto a farm and helping himself to the tasty tubers he had found there. The farmer, American Lyman Cutlar, shot and killed the wayward pig, which turned out to be owned by Charles Griffin, a Brit, who worked for the Hudson Bay Company. “It was eating my potatoes,” Cutlar is rumored to have said. “It was up to you to keep your potatoes out of my pig,” was Griffin’s (supposed) reply.
When British authorities, claiming jurisdiction over the islands, threatened to arrest Cutlar, a cold war broke out between the two sovereigns. The 9th Infantry came out to protect America’s territorial claim. The British dispatched no fewer than five warships. Though no shots were fired (other than the one that killed poor Porky), it took years to resolve the issue. Eventually, Kaiser Wilhelm I was called in to decide things. He declared the islands to be American, and the British, with their usual stiff upper lip, departed the premises.
Why am I bringing this up now? History repeats itself. According to CBS News, marauding Canadian “super pigs” are viewed as a threat to American ranchers today. These very large and not very well-behaved wild hogs are evidently a cross between domestic hogs and wild ones, and they have become quite numerous. The oinkers are already wreaking havoc on Canadian farms and ranches and will do so here as soon as they hit upon the border. Another Pig War in the making …
Bottom line? If President Trump is looking for an excuse to … uh … invade Canada, I think we’ve found it for him ….