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.

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
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    22 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.