this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 184 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

US has a dependency on EU logistics

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Not after the US sanctions said logistics :D

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I hope this is what comes of it.

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[–] [email protected] 150 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Humans are so fucking stupid.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 month ago (8 children)

Most are ok. It's the spoiled nepo babies who've grown into privileged assholes that are the problem.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 month ago (33 children)

Plus the morons that keep voting them into power.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Plus the morons that keep voting them into power.

Nobody voted Schmusk into power.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago

I mean... It's not like the signs weren't there.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago

But everybody who wanted to could have known that Trump was going to appoint the most comically unqualified people.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

People let them stay in power

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago

Standing in the middle of a fully stocked supermarket saying, “well, I guess this is it. We have no choice but to kill and eat each other.”

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Switzerland is always prepared for war. Prepared to stay the fuck out of it and profit from it.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago (8 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago (10 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month 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.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"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."

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month 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.
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (3 children)

“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.

[–] dmalteseknight 15 points 1 month ago

Frankly I think Trump sees western nations not led by dictators as threats.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Soo. Uhh.. what exactly happens when US loses it's soft power and trust in Europe and Europe slowly cozies up to China?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month 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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month 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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Switzerland been preparing for war since 1648.

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