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.
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.
Switzerland been preparing for war since 1648.
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.
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
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.Has the USA ever won a war?
Yes, they win most of them. They mostly lose when they try to occupy a foreign country and do counterinsurgency.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
Counter insurgency is tough to overcome. As you kill insurgents, more insurgents pop up because the initially killed insurgents were their family and friends. The only way to do it is to rule with an iron fist.
Every war they’ve ever declared. They just haven’t declared war since WW2
Desert Shield/Storm and Panama were overwhelmingly sucessful military operations because they had clear, achievable objectives. George HW Bush was a bastard, but his team could execute a military mission.
Also, the Iranian army didnt fight back because they didnt want to. Some even asked, “what took you so long?..”
So not a war since things have gotten so computer. Comforting.
typo?
Hey kid, I’m a computer, stop all the downloading
Their civil war?
Nailed it.
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.
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.
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.
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I was thinking Summer 2025
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.
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.
Man you guys really swing for the fences and get specific with your predictions, love it.
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
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…
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I don’t know what form of stroke you just had, but as a fellow Swiss - Raylon@lemmy.world summarized it beautifully. To stay on topic, with our current military / defence setup; we’re fucked.
“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.
Soo. Uhh… what exactly happens when US loses it’s soft power and trust in Europe and Europe slowly cozies up to China?
Oh thats easy, Europe becomes the enemy, which you already see happening. You dont say you’re getting another country 's territory one way or another if they’re not your enemy.
That’s an enemy they’ll have a hard time take on though.
Frankly I think Trump sees western nations not led by dictators as threats.
Maybe you weren’t paying attention when Obama was president? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_foreign_policy_of_the_Barack_Obama_administration
Oh, this is exactly what I was saying, this has been going on since Obama.
What I mean is the pivot to the east was pretty clear with Obama. With Trump? I think he sees China and Russia more as a role model than an opponent, but who knows what’s going on in his mind.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Anyone taking bets which Country gets threatened next I’m thinking Jamaica had to hand over 50percent of its rum.
“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.”
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.
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
This isn’t really a threat, because the person saying it doesn’t make those decisions.
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.
It seems like they want to downsize. I wonder if Europeans can convince the orange guy to sell some equipment at a discount rather than ship it home.
We’d better build our own IMO.
I was thinking of a country that might be able to use it now.
Sure, hopefully we’ll do as much as we can and buy the rest, but the USA might not sell it (like information).
Yeah you guys need to build.
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Because Russia and the US like to invade countries on trumped up claims, and one facing conequences is bad looks for the other one too?
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.
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.
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 😢
US has a dependency on EU logistics
Not after the US sanctions said logistics :D
I hope this is what comes of it.
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.
Switzerland… war… lol
Switzerland is always prepared for war. Prepared to stay the fuck out of it and profit from it.
I mean, if that’s an option …
My exact reaction lol. News is like satire now.
Doing my service 🫡 (I am a conscript and don’t want this)
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.
Shoving helos off a carrier deck comes to mind, when we were actually trying to evacuate refugees instead of lowering plane flaps to push off the hangers on. Guess the Taliban has Strykers and MRAPs now just like our cops, yay murica
I feel sorry for their mechanics.
They’re about to learn the real lesson of the Big Green Weenie…logistics
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Lmao this guy
I’m so ready to never fly or drive to the 51st or 52nd states or Alaska. Alaska and Hawaii and Puerto Rico are the WTF parts of the US. Like how come they are not just independent nations?
Well, we sort of toppled an empire when we stole Hawaii, it literally was independent
Understood. I mean California Oregon, Louisiana and Texas were Mexican at some point and mexica before the Spaniards.
Oregon was British, thank you very much!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Country
FYI - The history on the Hudson’s Bay Company is FASCINATING!
Going off of Russia’s rules, I think that means we (Canada) get to annex Oregon right?
I’d allow it! :)
At some point. Lol…not lol.
Louisiana
Now France has entered the chat too! But yes, your point that history gets messy depending on the lense being used remains (at least, I hope I am not misrepresenting you)
Well it was Spanish from 1763 to 1803. The USA began existing in 1776…in July of that year. When the French arrived, various Native American groups, including the Atakapa, Caddo, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, Natchez, and Tunica tribes, lived in the area. You’re totally right, it was actually never Mexican.
Even the California and Oregon thing is sort of a stretch. Like I’m sure there were settlements per the historical record. But I very much doubt they were actually identifying as the Mexicans we know and love today. More like Spaniards and their slaves. There’s actually a really old history pre-USA of mejican exploration to create a trade route to China. Lots of Chinese people traveled for trade to the Philippines and Mexico and the same for Mexicans. Along the trade route you can find all sorts of intermixing… Mexipinos, chinexicans, japaxincans, etc.
It wasn’t called Louisiana before the French named it that, I was just having fun with the way you phrased to things
Yeah no worries. It got me googling.
Hawaii was an independent nation, until they allowed some US business interests in. Those businessman bolstered by a US Marines contingent + some artillery and a tugboat with a single cannon on it invaded when a new constitution was written by the Queen that would strip the companies of some power and give it to the poor. They imprisoned the queen. After a failed attempt at rescuing her and a “trial” by a hastily set up “US military court” she signed over the country to the US in exchange for the release of her would-be rescuers, who would have been executed. In 1993 the US apologized to Hawaii and acknowledged that the actions had been illegal and a coup d’tat of a legitimate government, and an illegal use of military force. But there were no reparations or offers to return Hawaiians to power.
Many Hawaiians are still pretty vocal that they’d like the US to get the eff out of their country. They are disorganized though and theres a colossal amount of white wealthy that are against making the injustice right in even small ways. Capitalism is insidious and unaccountable. It doesn’t balk at murder and uses laws only when it benefits them and ignores them otherwise.
Adding to this (and also, thank you for spelling out what I only hinted at): That last queen wrote a book to tell the story of what happened.
Her brother, who was the last king of Hawaii, wrote a book of Hawaiian mythology, too, that is worth checking out if that’s your bag.
Ruined by capitalism. Time and time again
