How do you invade a country/Start a War?

Factual Questions
1

Supposing of course that it’s not an established country trying to start a war (I imagine they have protocols, and people for that thing), but rather, a bunch of Irate farmers and myself decide we want a war. Why? because we’re Irate. More seriously, I’m somewhat interested in how war is fought, and want needs to be done to fight a legal war, especially if you are not a country.

Now first we have to choose the target, but if we start a war with our own country (Canada), I would think that we would get charged with Treason (or whatever), and I would think that that is a major crime. We don’t want to do anything criminal, so that removes Canada from our list of target countries. The next best country is the US, as it is just next door. So my band of Irate farmers and I decide to invade North Dakota, if we want to capture North Dakota we will probably have to capture Bismark, a city of some 50 000 people. How many irate farmers must I recruit to capture a city this size assuming that an Irate farmer is about as effective as a normal infantry man.

Having recruited enough irate farmers, we need to then declair war on someone. How does a group of people (not a country) declair war on another country We want this to be a legal war after all. I don’t think I could just call George Bush up on the phone and tell him we are invading; somehow I don’t think any of his screeners would take us seriously. I doubt we would be able to get through directly to GWB, so could we send a registered letter to the govt, and when we get confirmation of someone in govt recieving the letter, would we then be legally entitled to attack? Who should we send this letter to?

So we got the letter to someone in govt, and are ready to invade. Time for uniform selection. In order for all my Irate farmers to not be executed as spies, how uniform must our uniforms be? In our letter can we say that our army will be dressed up as irate farmers, and leave it at that (that would give my troops a lot of indivdual customization to their uniforms), or do I have to have all my troops wear the exact same thing (ie red plaid shirt, blue jeans, black gum boots)?

Now we need to get to our target (Bismark). In order for our invasion to be legal must we go through Customs?. Remember, we are not part of Canada’s army, we’re just a bunch of irate farmers that want to invade, and we want it to be a legal war. Somehow I don’t think that we would get through customs. As we as the Irate Farmers Army, are we allowed to go around the boarder crossings to get into the US? We are an invading army after all. Would the Army be charged with anything if it went around the boarder crossing

So we are now in the US and marching on Bismark; what do we have to do to capture the city. Can I just march my IFA (Irate Farmers Army) into the city hall and tell the mayor that his city has been captured?How do we convince the police that we are not a bunch of crack pots but an actual conquering army?. We don’t want to shoot up a bunch of cops,** but if they attack the IFA, will be legally allowed to shoot back? ** It is a war, and we are the enemy.

So we’ve captured the City. How long will it take the US army to Evict us? Or will they bother to get our army out of the city. Would the US bomb Bismark to get us out? Or would they nogotiate the return of the city from the IFA?

Worse comes to worse. The US storms Bismark, and my entire army is captured. After capturing all of the Irate Farmers, what will the US do to them IIRC correctly, countries have to release POWs once the war is over. How long would the US hold my soldiers for if the war ended a couple days after their capture? Assuming I get caught, what is the US likely to do to me as the leader of the IFA? Also assuming that I haven’t been randomly trying to exterminate the Bismarkers

Are there any steps in the Creating a legal war situation that I am missing?

Is there anything else I need to consider before I launch the Great Irate Farmer War.

I will give preferential treatment in my new world order to people who help me with these questions. Just monitor the news, and when you hear that Bismark has fallen, go there, and as for QOFM.

Thanks

2

If any invading army ever came south over the border, the United States would be well within its rights to declare war on Canada and start bombing Toronto. Whether or not the Canadian govenment approved is not the U.S.'s problem.

3

Your basic idea is full of flaws.

First, you have an army of untrained militiamen. You have no allowance for your supply train, no heavy weapons such as mortars, machine guns, tanks, support vehicles, et cetera. How much ammo does each man have? What equipment do they have?

The first order, crossing the border, starts your problems. How are you traveling? By foot? Are you using the road system, or crossing open country? What do you do at night? And for feeding the troops?

Assuming you cross the border, you will be vulnerable to snipers, minefields, air attacks, and all sorts of nastiness.

In summary, your scenario has much planning to be done before it’s even viable.

Nations reserve the right to declare war by establishing protocols between them, one of which is the Geneva Convention. A group of individuals is subject to thge laws of the nation they live in, and before you could act the Canadian government would be obligated to address your group.

With all that in mind, in order to capture a city like Bismarck you would have to neutralize any enemy resistance and fully occupy the city. Taking the mayor and officials prisoner and compelling them to surrender the city would work for those who would follow the orders of the mayor; some people will not give up.

When you lose, the prisoners would be subject to Geneva Convention rules; given the current administration, the rules may be a little different. A likely scenario is you and your army being released to Canadian custody for further legal proceedings.

What I think? Your army would be stopped at the border by an Army division; the artillery alone would rip through your ranks and machine guns would finish off the rest who resisted.

4

Sorry, but you’re worried about minor details like uniforms and declarations while missing the big picture. Only sovereign nations can legally declare war. So your irate farmers are just going to be a bunch of … well … irate farmers who are running around with guns and breaking various laws.

5

There’s a word for a group of private adventurers with guns going to take over a country - filibuster, derived from the Dutch root frijbuter via the Spanish filibustero, IIRC. Another word, freebooter, is sometimes used. That one comes straight from the Dutch.

Not particularly relevant to the topic, just thought you’d like to know…

6

If you need to diversify a bit, you could fax a photo of the Village People to the Sec. of Defense (US) and have your Irate Farmers™ dress as ONE of the five. That would give a good bit of flexibility.

Hell, construction guy and motorcycle cop guy get helmets, I bet everyone would jump on those 2 choices right away. How warm does it get in Bismark and when are you going in?

You might go as Indian (native American) guy and take a leatherman guy getup in a duffel in case it got really cold. Just trying to help…

…heh… gum boots…

Another option: Everyone dresses like their favorite member of KISS! That would just freak the SH*T out of the North Dakotans. 50,000 Irate KISS guys descending on their little hamlet. You wouldn’t even have to bring guns. They’d GIVE you the whole state and skedaddle. Next stop: SOUTH Dakota! Then you paint up Mt. Rushmore to look like Gene, Paul, Peter and Ace!!! The mind boggles.

7

Since “legal” wars are defined by treaties between nations, and you aren’t a nation, you’re already starting off on the wrong foot.

But let’s say that just for the hell of it, you decide to march into Pembina and liberate the outlet malls.

First you’ll have to deal with the local sheriff. For the sake of argument, let’s say you can handle that.

Next, the governor will probably call out the National Guard (the militia). They’re pretty well-equipped, but let’s say you’re able to hold them off.

But I want to remind you, that at least during the 1980s, North Dakota by itself had something like the 8th largest nuclear arsenal in the entire world. Yeah, there was some post-cold war disarming, but I’m pretty sure they still have at least a couple of B-52s up there that are ready to go on short notice.

Why don’t you just go a little farther east and try to get Lake of the Woods back from Minnesota?

8

If a freelance group crosses the Canadian border to commit crimes, they’re just a group of criminals whose enterprise happens to involve crossing a border. The US would expect police co-operation from the Canadians in detecting and preventing this kind of thing.

If a freelance group crosses a border specifically to engage in a conflict against the US government or the US people at large, this is not a hostile act by the Canadian government. The options open to the US goverment include

(a) asking the Canadian government to assist in dealing with the matter

(b) asking the Candadian government to allow US forces to enter Canada, if necessary to deal with the matter

© if the Canadian government fails or refuses to act against the group concerned, and refuses to allow US forces to enter Canada to do so, sending US forces into Canada without the agreement of the Canadian government to deal with the problem, and justifying this as legitimate self-defence, or

(d) if they feel that the Canadian government is, actively or passively, supporting the hostile action, treating this as a hostile action on the part of Canada justifying reprisal, up to and including the use of force.

Options © or (d) might eventually lead to war, if Canadian forces resisted incursions by US forces. But, as long as the armed conflict is between US forces and this freelance group, whether the actual fighting is in Canada or the US or both, I don’t think it would normally be considered a war.

9

If you want an historical example, look at the invasion of Canada by the Fenians after the American Civil War. See http://www.thehistorynet.com/mh/blfenianinvasionsofcanada/ for the details.

10

Believe it or not, something similar actually happened like this back in 1866, between the U.S. and Canada, no less. The Fenians were a well-armed militia of American Irish immigrants
who decided that the best way to liberate Ireland from the cruel British would be to attack Canada (which was, granted, still an English colony at the time.)