Swiss invade Liechtenstein!!!!!

[Walsingham]

I have to say you couldn't pay me enough money to invade Switzerland. It's a country-sized fortress.

[samm]

Well, if you did invade Switzerland, you'd have enough money to invade a nicer country... Although, if I look out of my window, there are not too many fortifications to see, more like lush meadows, wooded hills, a lake and some snowy mountains in the distance...

[Lucius]

I think he's talking about your terrain, mountains and ****. :D

[Balthamael]

Isn't it also true (I am actually not sure about this, but maybe samm can confirm) that all adult males are expected to maintain an automatic rifle and be proficient in using it. Meaning that even if you somehow managed to conquer the place, you'd be looking at lifetime of guerrilla warfare in extremely difficult terrain. No thanks. I'd imagine even the most megalomaniacal supervillains would have the sense to steer clear from Switzerland.

[Guard Dog]

Isn't it also true (I am actually not sure about this, but maybe samm can confirm) that all adult males are expected to maintain an automatic rifle and be proficient in using it. Meaning that even if you somehow managed to conquer the place, you'd be looking at lifetime of guerrilla warfare in extremely difficult terrain. No thanks. I'd imagine even the most megalomaniacal supervillains would have the sense to steer clear from Switzerland.

They have so far. This goes back to my argument against gun control. If you are will armed and everyone knows it, nobody will mess with you!

[Walsingham]

Isn't it also true (I am actually not sure about this, but maybe samm can confirm) that all adult males are expected to maintain an automatic rifle and be proficient in using it. Meaning that even if you somehow managed to conquer the place, you'd be looking at lifetime of guerrilla warfare in extremely difficult terrain. No thanks. I'd imagine even the most megalomaniacal supervillains would have the sense to steer clear from Switzerland.

They have so far. This goes back to my argument against gun control. If you are will armed and everyone knows it, nobody will mess with you!

 

You mean like Afghanistan, the worlds most messed with country (bar Poland)?

[samm]

Isn't it also true (I am actually not sure about this, but maybe samm can confirm) that all adult males are expected to maintain an automatic rifle and be proficient in using it. Meaning that even if you somehow managed to conquer the place, you'd be looking at lifetime of guerrilla warfare in extremely difficult terrain. No thanks. I'd imagine even the most megalomaniacal supervillains would have the sense to steer clear from Switzerland.

Everyone that did his military service (which is mandatory for men, but often avoided for mental or physical reasons, and optional for women) in an armed unit keeps his gun and one round of bullets at home, yes. Many homicies and most suicides with guns are made using SIG Sturmgewehr 90. It would probably result in quite a guerilla warfare, but as said before, you'd just need to destroy Basel or Geneva using one or two Stealth-Bombers (we have like five F/A 18 guarding our airspace, that takes half a minute to cross) and threaten to vaporize Z

Edited March 5, 2007 by samm

[Walsingham]

the principle difficulty in invading switzerland would not be the airstrike and gin slings phase, but the maintenance of troops in a country that is almost all vertical, and supplied by winding torturous roads lined with immensely well built buildings. It would be like Monte Cassino.

[Lucius]

Not to mention over 400.000 SIG assault rifles in private homes.

[Laozi]

I have to say that I'm a little shocked the Swiss actually have an army. I always thought that the swiss army knife was like french fries or english muffins, sort of a misnomer.

Edited March 5, 2007 by Laozi

[Lucius]

I don't know if it's an actual army, but they have a large militia at least.

[Cantousent]

Switzerland has undoubtedly been a tough nut to crack. It's true. It's also been an easy nut to avoid. It serves no real purpose worth the effort of taking it. The Swiss have benefitted more from NATO force of arms than they can hope to benefit from their own. They can be neutral because they are surrounded by European nations not bent on conquest. Yes, neutrality is great, but the Swiss wouldn't have survived against Nazi Germany had it prevailed in the war. Switzerland did not raise its fist to challenge the nazis. It essentially said that it would provide a trading place for all comers. That, more than the threat of arms, is why the Swiss can afford to sit out every major war each century. Switzerland certainly wouldn't have put up a better struggle against the Germans prior to world war two than the the Finns did against the Russians. The difference? The Russians saw it as worth it to take on Finland.

 

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against the Swiss. In fact, I think they're an admirable country. Just don't get the idea that they're so mighty that no one has been willing to take them. They've been mighty enough, with enough money, that folks are unwilling to take the time to defeat them.

[Gorth]

Plus, all the decision makers, politicians, generals, dictators etc. all have their private bank accounts in Switzerland. Everybody is interested in maintaining the status quo of the country

[Walsingham]

Switzerland never gets invaded because it is the inverse of Poland. It is firmly in the Austro/French/Italian hegemony, and would be no fun whatsoever to invade. It would be a sergeants war, and who wants that?

 

Cant is right tho. Switzerland's smug bleating about world affairs always strikes me as distinctly hollow.

[Dark_Raven]

Switzerland doesn't have anything anyone wants.

[Cantousent]

They produce a lot of stuff folks want. It's just easier to pay for it than to mount a military offensive to take it.

 

I'm not trying to insult the Swiss, and I really was just joking about the French. I've never met any Swiss, but the French I've met have all been great folks. Every one of them.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Switzerland's neutrality came at an price paid in the blood of others. Had Germany won World War Two, there would be no such thing as a neutral nation in western Europe. Had the Soviet Union occupied western Europe... well, we saw what happened when the Soviet Union occupied foreign territory. Could the Swiss have driven out the Germans and Russians? *shrug* All things come to pass.

[Lucius]

It is a strange gathering of events, history is. Would the Soviets be sitting on all of Europe had there not been a Nazi Germany to fight? Your "what if" statement just made me think, I do know it is off topic.

[Walsingham]

It is a strange gathering of events, history is. Would the Soviets be sitting on all of Europe had there not been a Nazi Germany to fight? Your "what if" statement just made me think, I do know it is off topic.

 

I don't think the Soviet Union would have coped very well without the uniting force of the Nazi invaders.

[Xard]

It is a strange gathering of events, history is. Would the Soviets be sitting on all of Europe had there not been a Nazi Germany to fight? Your "what if" statement just made me think, I do know it is off topic.

 

Play Red Alert

[Guard Dog]

Ohhh speculative historical revision is my FAVORITE intellectual game. If WWI had ended in a stalemate there would have been no treaty of Versilles. Without that there would have been no opportunity for Hitler to be elected chancellor. History would have turned out VERY different.

[Walsingham]

Ohhh speculative historical revision is my FAVORITE intellectual game. If WWI had ended in a stalemate there would have been no treaty of Versilles. Without that there would have been no opportunity for Hitler to be elected chancellor. History would have turned out VERY different.

 

If YOu chaps had pitched in earlier it could have been over by Chrsitmas, and the rage engendered by the years of slaughter would have been lessened, probably avoiding the treaty.

[Guard Dog]

Ohhh speculative historical revision is my FAVORITE intellectual game. If WWI had ended in a stalemate there would have been no treaty of Versilles. Without that there would have been no opportunity for Hitler to be elected chancellor. History would have turned out VERY different.

 

If YOu chaps had pitched in earlier it could have been over by Chrsitmas, and the rage engendered by the years of slaughter would have been lessened, probably avoiding the treaty.

Heh, balme America eh? How PC of you!

 

But seriously, that is exactly the kind of thing I would have argued the US needed to stay out of. And to tell the truth, if not for the Zimmerman incident, the US would never have gotten involved. The Lusitania did not piss anyone off. The Zimmerman Telegram did.

[Walsingham]

Ohhh speculative historical revision is my FAVORITE intellectual game. If WWI had ended in a stalemate there would have been no treaty of Versilles. Without that there would have been no opportunity for Hitler to be elected chancellor. History would have turned out VERY different.

 

If YOu chaps had pitched in earlier it could have been over by Chrsitmas, and the rage engendered by the years of slaughter would have been lessened, probably avoiding the treaty.

Heh, balme America eh? How PC of you!

 

But seriously, that is exactly the kind of thing I would have argued the US needed to stay out of. And to tell the truth, if not for the Zimmerman incident, the US would never have gotten involved. The Lusitania did not piss anyone off. The Zimmerman Telegram did.

 

Why no. Merely the whingeing of a nation that is incaable of fighting wars until it is losing.

[kumquatq3]

We like our wars cold

[Lucius]

We like our wars cold

You'll need to dump a gigantic icecube on Iraq then.