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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[–] RetroGradeBE@lemmy.world 183 points 1 week ago (3 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.

[–] index@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

US has a dependency on EU logistics

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago

Not after the US sanctions said logistics :D

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I hope this is what comes of it.

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[–] 1984@lemmy.today 149 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Humans are so fucking stupid.

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 92 points 1 week ago (8 children)

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

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 77 points 1 week ago (33 children)

Plus the morons that keep voting them into power.

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Plus the morons that keep voting them into power.

Nobody voted Schmusk into power.

[–] tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago

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

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago

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

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[–] Montagge@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago

People let them stay in power

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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.”

[–] Brumefey@sh.itjust.works 60 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] Zess@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week 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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[–] NotLemming@lemm.ee 10 points 1 week ago

My exact reaction lol. News is like satire now.

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[–] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 56 points 1 week 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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[–] Raylon@lemmy.world 56 points 1 week 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.

[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week 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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[–] Teknikal@eviltoast.org 44 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

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

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week 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."

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week 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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[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 27 points 1 week 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@programming.dev 14 points 1 week ago

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

[–] REDACTED@infosec.pub 13 points 1 week 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?

[–] eric5949@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Clbull@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week 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.
[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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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[–] Prime_Minister_Keyes@lemm.ee 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[–] ZMoney@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week 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.

[–] Suoko@feddit.it 13 points 1 week 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

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 week ago

Switzerland been preparing for war since 1648.

[–] ThomasCrappersGhost@feddit.uk 7 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Has the USA ever won a war?

[–] scoobford@lemmy.zip 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] Devanismyname@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Every war they've ever declared. They just haven't declared war since WW2

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