According to former United States general Ben Hodges, the withdrawal of US troops from Europe is only a matter of time. In an interview with SonntagsBlick, he advises Switzerland to prepare for war.

  • Sicsurfer@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    This is blatant fear mongering, russia can’t even defeat the Ukraine. How the fuck do they manage a second front?

  • ZMoney@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    12 hours ago

    It’s unfortunate that we’ve configured our world like this, with rival nation states and militaries vying for supremacy. In reality, the conflict is between humans and militarism. Militarism will kill us all, in one way or another.

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    21 hours ago

    If Putin had any desire to conquer Switzerland, all I’ll say is good luck. They’re:

    • Heavily fortified, with hundreds of bunkers dotting the countryside
    • Highly mountainous, which would heavily slow down a ground invasion.
    • One of the few states to still practice mandatory military service.
    • Pretty lax with gun ownership, to the point where citizens have a statutory duty to bear arms in the event of an invasion.
    • A substantial player in the banking sector with many oligarchs using their service. Any freeze they’d put on Russian assets would likely go above and beyond what NATO and the EU managed, just because of how synonymous their banks are with the wealthy. They would probably send the Russian economy into freefall long before they could even get anywhere near Zurich.
    • Surrounded from all sides by NATO and EU member states, and would likely have plenty of time to prepare their own forces in the unlikely event that Russia mounts a full-scale invasion and takes over the rest of Europe.
  • Prime_Minister_Keyes@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Tangentially related, he once said: “I had a German tell me one time, he said, the two pillars for us are NATO and the EU. NATO is for life, EU is for quality of life.” I wonder how that’ll play out in the near future.
    EDIT: corrected link.

  • suoko@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 day ago

    Make him a present, some winter vacations in Switzerland and some summer ones in Italy. Cool those US guys down, down to the bottom of earth

  • Raylon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    56
    ·
    2 days ago

    If anyone is interested in the state of things in Switzerland:

    Our defense is in chaos right now. A scandal in our state-owned but public weapons manufacturer just broke a few weeks ago and shortly after the secretary of the departement of defense announced her resignation. We will see if the newly elected one will improve the situation.

    The army is generally seen as somewhat of a joke, especially by people who served, which is more than half of all Swiss men. We like to call it a “Pfadiverein” (boy scouts association).

    Even with all that, the right wing parties want to give a shitload more money to defense, and cut costs in social spending and foreign aid to compensate. Left of centre the need to improve defense is also accepted, but 1) before the army gets more money, they need to get their shit together and 2) more important than the army itself is integration with the european security Infrastructure (the left parties are also very pro-EU). The centre politicians usually mix blth stances and lean more one or the other way.

    Also we still stand to buy fighter jets from the US, and only the left parties are calling to cancel the deal.

    • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      1 day ago

      If it makes you feel any better, we have a joke in Austria that we might as well not have an army, because we border 1) NATO, 2) Switzerland, and if either of those become a threat, we might as well capitulate immediately.

    • Paragone@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Then you don’t understand what’s REALLY going-on:

      Trump wants to smash Canada & Greenland, so that between Trump+Musk on ALL of North America + Greenland,

      & Putin-backed-by-China,

      the hated-by-them EU can be DESTROYED,

      & then they get to be the ONLY “kings” ruling the world.

      FIGHT TO THE DEATH TO SAVE EUROPE’S LIFE, if you have to!

      Trump’s declaring war against Canada, my country, is certain, within 2-2.5y, maximum.

      _ /\ _

      • ubergeek@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 day ago

        Trump’s declaring war against Canada, my country, is certain, within 2-2.5y, maximum.

        I only think you’re optimistic in the time frame. I’m expecting within 6 months, Trump will try. He will fail, because he fails to understand how many USians will take up arms to defend Canada, from within the US itself.

        Once that happens, it’s game over for the US. I honestly think it will be the spark that causes civil war, and this time, a dissolution of the union.

        I project within 10 years, the United States will consist of about 15 states, and the rest of the states will be split into their own countries, with one of them possibly incorporated into Canada.

        My guess is the NE gets turned into another province, and the Pacific Coast states will be the own country; in the end, likely about 20 years out.

        • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          14 hours ago

          I think Mexico is the most likely candidate for attempted 1st annexation. Trump hates colored people, thus he thinks it is an easy win on multiple levels. It wouldn’t surprise me if Mexico ends up as a proxy combatant on the behalf of Canada and the EU, and likely using their cartels to kill members of Yarvin’s Cabal to send a message.

        • Tiger@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          23 hours ago

          Man you guys really swing for the fences and get specific with your predictions, love it.

        • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 day ago

          Ok first off LOL I appreciate the thought experiment we all have them and anything is in the realm of possibility but still be batshit insane.

          That said, I want Minnesota because selfishly their hip hop scene is bumpin

      • Paragone@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Oh, while the US is waging TOTAL WAR against Canada, 3y from now, if anyone think that China-backed-Russia isn’t going to be rampaging Europe, they’re mindblind/incompetent.

        This is THE GREAT FILTER: humankind’s species-“puberty”.

        Grow-up transformation either will be earned, by some remnant of our world’s people,

        XOR

        the galaxy will be silent of our-kind, permanently, by the end of this century, forever.

        Natural Selection, it’s called, within an Extinction Event, too…

        _ /\ _

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    2 days ago

    “According to everything I hear from Washington, Europe is no longer a priority.” Trump sees China as the main opponent of the US.

    This didn’t start with Trump, it has been building for a long time. I haven’t seen anyone spell it out so clearly before though.

  • RetroGradeBE@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    185
    ·
    2 days ago

    As bad as it sounds, if our European leaders can get their head out of their collective US-aligned asses, it could finally be a push to a more cohesive EU-defence policy that is not dependant on US logistics and firepower.

    We have allowed ourselves to be way to complacent for far too long.

    • cool@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      it could finally be a push to a more cohesive EU-defence policy that is not dependant on US logistics and firepower.

      I think the main reason why the EU doesn’t care much about defense is that their people don’t “value” war as much as other nations.

      They live comfortably. They have their social services. Life is pretty good, for the most part.

      Trying to convince them to go die in a war isn’t going to be very popular. I genuinely believe the Western world is in for a rude awakening when an actual conflict breaks out.

      It’s not just logistics. These are people’s lives.

    • Darkmoon_UK@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      Collectively European nations have the economy and technology to build a Military Industrial Complex to rival the US… I hope they truly wake up before it’s too late, lest the birthplace of western civilization also become it’s grave 😢

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        There are silver linings like this. The good news is that if we fight now, Trump will have destroyed a lot of the institutions (both domestic and foreign) that were holding back real progress. Clears the way to build better ones.

  • Jeena@piefed.jeena.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    61
    ·
    2 days ago

    It’s high time that we throw out the US army from Europe. They’ve been waging war in the middle east from Rammstein for decades.

  • Teknikal@eviltoast.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    Anyone taking bets which Country gets threatened next I’m thinking Jamaica had to hand over 50percent of its rum.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      37
      ·
      2 days ago

      “Puerto Rico needs to end it’s vicious trade war against the US or risk it’s government being overthrown and made a US state.”

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        2 days ago

        They better start exporting their bountiful electricity! They got so much of it, enough for a good 3 or 4 days of AI questions about how awesome our beautiful leader Mr orange is.

        • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          21 hours ago

          I hear Puerto Rico is actually stocked full of paper towels, so much so that their politicians are literally throwing them around! They should definitely be sharing with the US.

          /s

    • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      This isn’t really a threat, because the person saying it doesn’t make those decisions.

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    US troops often withdraw leaving way too much equipment behind.

    I better not see civilians with “cool military” gear! That’s worse than any weeb or m’ladyian/fedorian.

    But maybe I get to burn a Humvee or two since we “lack” those (now obviously surplus too) cybertrucks over here.