r/worldnews
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u/Espressodimare
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Mar 12 '23
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President of Switzerland supports ban on arms supplies to Ukraine Russia/Ukraine
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-defense/3681550-president-of-switzerland-supports-ban-on-arms-supplies-to-ukraine.html13.8k
u/BlueInfinity2021
Mar 13 '23
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The biggest lesson from this is that the Swiss arms industry including any subsidiaries outside of Switzerland should only be allowed to make arms for use by the Swiss military.
It's cool if they want to remain neutral but they should never have made arms for other countries if that's the case.
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u/OutlawSundown Mar 13 '23
Yep their arms are worthless if Switzerland refuses to supply if shit hits the fan.
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u/Implausibilibuddy Mar 13 '23 edited Mar 13 '23
Worthless anyway, shitty plastic garbage. And who really needs to get stones out of horses hooves that much in 2023 anyway?
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u/TyrannosaurusWest Mar 13 '23
Is this a riddle or am I simply overthinking the second part of your comment?
If it’s a riddle, please just say ‘yes’ - but don’t tell me the answer because I want to figure it out on my own!
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u/Bahnhof Mar 13 '23
Some Swiss army knives have a hoof cleaning blade.
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u/ENODEBEE Mar 13 '23
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u/GurthNada Mar 13 '23
The go-to equine accessory; ideal for cleaning hooves at the yard or stable
There's no way there aren't better hooves cleaning tools in a stable than a Swiss Army Knife.
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u/AndroidMyAndroid Mar 13 '23
There are also better knives than a Swiss Army Knife, but that's not the point. SA knives are for soldiers to carry in the field, not the stable.
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u/independent-student Mar 13 '23
Camping, light toolboxes, cars, any odd places where having a very compact set of tools is useful.
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u/FriskyPheasant Mar 13 '23
Well I’ve finally learned what that part of my knife was for. 10 year old me woulda thought that was pretty sweet.
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u/A_swarm_of_wasps Mar 13 '23
I would hope that any other country considering a defence contract with a Swiss company would now factor in "If we ever actually need these weapons to defend ourselves, Switzerland would refuse to provide ammunition or maintenance"
But if the Swiss company offers a bigger kickback, that probably won't enter into it.
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u/BushMonsterInc Mar 13 '23
HK would be happy to see Sig gone from European market
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u/p8ntslinger Mar 13 '23
isn't Sig only in the US now? I thought they moved like 90% of their assets to the US.
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u/beryugyo619 Mar 13 '23
And the German government would be somehow not happy to see HK expanding in European market
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u/BushMonsterInc Mar 13 '23
if not HK then FN, or Steyr, or Glock, there are quite a few manufacturers, that can fill the gap and be very happy about it
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u/betaich Mar 13 '23
Austria also won't sell weapons to Ukraine or third parties who send weapons to Ukraine, same reason as the Swiss, neurality.
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u/joaommx Mar 13 '23
HK and FN it is.
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u/Stamford16A1 Mar 13 '23
The Czechs, Poles, Croats and Slovenes would be more than happy to step in too.
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u/PublicFurryAccount Mar 13 '23
Almost the same reason, anyway. It’s not even a real tradition for them. It dates from WWII and the government’s deal to get out of consequences by pledging neutrality between the West and East.
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u/ChrisTchaik Mar 13 '23
Austria is still way too reliant on Russian gas to even care how valid their reasons actually are
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u/Dan_Backslide Mar 13 '23
Uhh. Sig in Germany doesn’t exist anymore. And the operation in Switzerland is owned by the US company now and essentially builds the 550 series of rifles and imports the US products.
HK can still suck my balls, though.
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u/Odd_Description1 Mar 13 '23
Sig isn't really that Swiss though. Sig Sauer USA is what covers most of their product lines. Their CEO, Ron Cohen, has absolutely trashed the company the same way he trashed Kimber. All about profits instead of making quality products.
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u/NoExplanation734 Mar 13 '23
There was a NYT article today about how much of the controversy in Switzerland is about how to support their domestic arms industry through exports to a level that will make it self-sustaining enough to enforce their "armed neutrality." Essentially, the Swiss market is too small to sustain the arms industry they regard as a national security asset, but they fear losing their neutrality by selling to their main customers who will then just send them to Ukraine.
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u/Rent-a-guru Mar 13 '23
Unfortunately their arms exports are worthless if they don't continue to supply during a war. I'm not going to buy Swiss APCs or anti-aircraft equipment if I know that spare parts, technical assistance, ammunition etc. will be cut off in the case of a conflict.
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u/FieldMouse-777 Mar 13 '23
Excellent comment. I just met these guys at a show last year in DC, offering up wares in the free market. I’d be really careful too!
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u/mok000 Mar 13 '23
And if the enemy is invading your neighboring country, you can't provide assistance to stop the enemy there, but have to wait until the enemy reaches your territory.
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u/PersnickityPenguin Mar 13 '23
Well per the presidents clear declaration:
“Swiss weapons must not be used in wars.”
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u/ADHDK Mar 13 '23
So they’re issued to police forces only? If they’re selling to military then they clearly don’t care enough.
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u/crewchiefguy Mar 13 '23
The reality is there is probably so much Russian money sitting in their banks that siding with Ukraine will almost surely fuck over their richest people. So they pretend like they are being neutral.
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u/fistymcbuttpuncher Mar 13 '23
ding ding ding!
Putin and his cronies probably have 100s of billions stashed in swiss bank accounts.
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u/PresidentSpanky Mar 13 '23
Actually, there are 46bn Francs in bank accounts and together with securities held with Swiss banks it is estimated that Russian citizens hold 150-200bn Francs. Currently, only 7.5bn Francs are blocked. There is obviously reasons that not all can be blocked (e.g. double citizens) but Switzerland is clearly doing way too little.
I listened to an interview with the leader of the Swiss Green Party a few days ago. The Greens and the SVP (right wing populists and largest party) are both against any exports. The argument was weird. She basically wanted more funds being blocked, but to achieve that, she thinks Switzerland needs to stay with its strict neutrality. She even supported the very different approach of the German Greens and said she would have decided the same way. It was so weird, I don’t think anybody could follow her outside of their little alpine enclosure
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u/aski3252 Mar 13 '23
The Greens and the SVP (right wing populists and largest party) are both against any exports.
The greens and other left wing parties are and pretty has pretty much always been in favour of a strict arms export ban in general since forever. They are also very much pro Ukraine in this instance, so in favour of freezing Russian funds and supporting sanctions against Russia.
For the SVP, it's a bit more complicated. They are (economic) liberals as wells as right wing populists, so on one hand, they of course want to deregulate weapons exports (same as all industry of course) as much as possible. But they also don't want to piss off their conservative/right-wing base too much who value "Swiss neutrality" as a tradition to conserve. They are also the strongest party, which is how we ended up with this confusing and contradictory "compromise" where weapon exports are allowed, but only if they are not used for wars.
So the SVP had and still somewhat has an internal struggle where they want to protect the arms industry and Swiss tradition of not supporting wars, but so far, they seem to officially have chosen to value "tradition" more than protecting the arms industry they normally protect and work for.
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u/schwerbherb Mar 13 '23
Switzerland is still participating in lots of the international sanctions. A lot of assets have been frozen since the beginning of the war.
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u/guineaprince Mar 13 '23
Swiss neutrality is a front anyway. They are an extremely hostile force when it comes to water plunder, child labour, etc. So the theater doesn't mean much to me already.
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u/not_right Mar 13 '23
Between the criminal and the victim, Switzerland chooses "neutral". Aka enabling the criminal and turning a blind eye to the crimes. They did it in WWII and they're doing it now. Dirty, cruel "neutrality".
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u/guineaprince Mar 13 '23
It's not merely turning a blind eye when it's their own plunder and extraction. They are the criminal.
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u/DeflateGape Mar 13 '23
Zapp Brannigans seminal rant against neutrals was intended to be satirical, but the longer I live the more I agree with it. The people who stood by literally while Nazis conquered Europe, and held onto Nazi gold ripped right from the mouths of the people they genocided, dont have any claim to morality.
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u/praguepride Mar 13 '23
What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?
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u/Frequent_Owl_2923 Mar 13 '23
Exactly this. Swiss neutrality is among the biggest lies ever told. There is no such thing as Swiss neutrality. It doesn't exist. Never has. Never will.
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u/Fifth_Down Mar 13 '23
but they fear losing their neutrality by selling to their main customers who will then just send them to Ukraine
It goes beyond that. They won't even put themselves in a position to give "second hand" military support. If Germany donates weapons from its own stockpiles to Ukraine that are legally theirs to sell and are under no export restrictions, Switzerland won't sell weapons to Germany to replace those stockpiles because to them that's still facilitating the arms trade to Ukraine.
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u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 13 '23
Let their arms industry fail, then.
Sucks to suck.
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u/Black_Moons Mar 13 '23 edited Mar 13 '23
Pretty much. Im sure there is no shortage of other countries who will sell Germany weapons.
Lemme start a list:
USA, Canada, Japan, China, India, greenland, iceland, north korea, south korea, any other korea's I might have forgotten about, Germany, etc, etc, etc.
<Edited to add Germany to list of countries who will sell Germany weapons if the swiss won't>
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u/quickblur Mar 13 '23
Germany has quite a large defense industry of their own. Heckler & Koch is German, plus the country makes some of the best submarines in the world.
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u/BullTerrierTerror Mar 13 '23
Basically the Ferengie
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u/Brunt-FCA-285 Mar 13 '23
Remember the 34th Rule of Acquisition: “War is good for business.”
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u/kingbane2 Mar 13 '23
isn't the 35th rule also, peace is good for business? hahaha.
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u/ExtantPlant Mar 13 '23
Pretty sure the 34th rule of acquisition is: If I can sell it, I can also make porn of it.
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u/THE-BS Mar 13 '23
That's how Moogie put the boys through college
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u/CedarWolf Mar 13 '23
Can't be. Moogie caused a stir in Ferengi society because she wanted the right for women to wear clothes and conduct business.
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u/ExtantPlant Mar 13 '23
What's more Ferengi than creating a new market and then cornering it?
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u/Billy1121 Mar 13 '23
Once you have their money, never give it back
Considering what they did with the accounts of Jews who died in the Holocaust, you are right on
(they never gave them back to surviving family)
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u/Billybob9389 Mar 13 '23
Agreed. I have no issue with Switzerland not doing more to help out Ukraine, and this includes not giving them weapons. However, I think that it is a self serving position that they're allowed to export any weapons that aren't for civilian use.
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u/ExtantPlant Mar 13 '23
What did they think their exported weapons were going to be used for? Defense only? Well, Ukraine is fighting a purely defensive war.
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u/Mysteriousdeer Mar 13 '23
I have a bit of an issue with Switzerland being neutral if it means that they essentially leave their defense up to countries that act as a buffer, or they turn a blind eye to moral atrocities. If they want to play on a global stage and store the funding of all the worlds leaders, then they aren't really neutral anyways.
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u/failure_of_a_cow Mar 13 '23
The quote from the article is:
The government's position is clear, it also corresponds to my personal position: Swiss weapons must not be used in wars
Which raises the question: When should Swiss weapons be used? What is the point of Swiss weapons, if not to defend from invasion? Why do they exist at all?
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u/heX_dzh Mar 13 '23
To make them money.
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u/tinkthank Mar 13 '23
Terrible sales pitch.
“buy weapons from us that we’ll make sure you never get to use…ever!”
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u/Swagonis Mar 13 '23
"Buy from us, but only if you use it to be the aggressor, not when you want to defend yourself."
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u/Zombie_Harambe Mar 13 '23
"Buy from us. We'll be super untrustworthy down the road."
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u/Jeffery95 Mar 13 '23
Man wants an arms industry without supplying arms.
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u/McENEN Mar 13 '23
Duh it's peaceful weapons. We all know weapons are made peace, we are all silly Europeans thinking otherwise.
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u/mirracz Mar 13 '23
It reminds me of a Czech comedy theater play about a man who wanted to own a pub but didn't like people. A quote that many Czechs love to say in situations like this is "He opened a pub, but people kept coming."
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u/Trimyr Mar 13 '23 •
Bernard: What do they want from me? Why can't they leave me alone? I mean, what do they want from me?
Manny: They want to buy books.
Bernard: Yeah, but why me? Why do they come to me?
Manny: Well, because you sell books.
Bernard: Yeah, I know but...
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u/Gurtmcsquirt Mar 13 '23
What if they were used in a special military operation instead?
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u/JimmyCrackCrack Mar 13 '23
That really is a weird statement, I mean, was it ad-libbed? The flaw is so obvious. It would only make sense if they only supplied domestically and even then if they were defending themselves it'd still technically be a war.
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u/ManFromSwitzerland Mar 13 '23
Which has always been "included" in the swiss definition of neutrality. It's nothing new.
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u/shardarkar Mar 13 '23
Well its fine then. According to Putin its a "Special" "Military operation" right? So it's not a war.
Q.E.D they can supply arms to Ukraine.
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u/RedMist_AU Mar 13 '23
Once they are purchased from the Swiss, they are no longer Swiss weapons.
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u/gold_rush_doom Mar 13 '23
Yeah, but it's like Ferraris: if you break their rules they'll make sure never to sell you stuff again.
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u/Innovationenthusiast Mar 13 '23
Well, if ferrari came with the rule that you can't drive a ferrari on a public road, their cars effectively became worthless.
The threat of them not selling to you again than also becomes,equally worthless
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u/thegreger Mar 13 '23
Funny thing that non-car-geeks might actually not know: Ferrari DID that. If you "buy" a Ferrari FXX for 2,000,000 GBP, you will only get to drive it on track, but only on track events that Ferrari has approved. Some sources claim that Ferrari insists on taking the car home with them after the event, others that you're allowed to take it home with you but not drive it, others state that you can get away with driving it in a private track event if you want to.
People basically pay 2,000,000 to brag that they're test drivers for Ferrari. It's a good way to beat your neighbour in the Monaco marina when they upgrade their yacht to a bigger one, I guess.
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u/Happy-Dress1179 Mar 12 '23
True to Swiss values.
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u/JunoVC Mar 13 '23
In Gold we trust
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u/thecheezewiz79 Mar 13 '23
Nazi gold*
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u/nyc98 Mar 13 '23
Jewish gold stolen by the nazis and deposited to swiss banks.
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u/joejill Mar 13 '23
Jewish gold teeth stolen by the nazis and deposited to swiss banks.
Fixed it for you.
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u/Jhoblesssavage Mar 13 '23
There is a significantly nonzero chance my great grandfathers teeth are in a Swiss bank vault
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u/joejill Mar 13 '23 edited Mar 13 '23
The Swiss "20 franc" gold coin from around ww2 has a slightly higher percent of mercury content than previous years.
The Swiss maintain the argument that this fact is not because they are made from gold amalgam pulled from teeth of jews in concentration camps.
There is a significantly nonzero chance that parts of your great grandfathers teeth are in rich peoples coin collections.
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Mar 13 '23
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u/Cobalt_88 Mar 13 '23
It means that it should be zero probability - I.e. no chance - but it’s not. Which is notable.
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u/tricksovertreats Mar 13 '23
the swiss come across all sweet and neutral but they did some shit
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u/northcrunk Mar 13 '23
They fucking love their Nazi gold. Switzerland likes to pretend they are neutral but they are happy to bootlick fascists for money
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u/hedgekn1ght Mar 13 '23
They even have our money. The ill gotten wealth of our former dictator.
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u/64645 Mar 13 '23
The ill gotten wealth of our former dictator.
Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down? /s
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u/hedgekn1ght Mar 13 '23
Haha. Im sorry. Im from the philippines. Now the son of the former director is our president. Its a fucking circus here.
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u/GoGoBitch Mar 13 '23
” Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. “
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u/LupusDeusMagnus Mar 13 '23
It's not neutrality if you're profiting out of it, just saying.
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u/GoGoBitch Mar 13 '23
This is a good point, and Switzerland was certainly doing that (and preventing Jewish families and communities from recovering their stolen wealth). I think that is one of the ways neutrality helps the oppressor and harms the oppressed.
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u/northcrunk Mar 13 '23
They should have been held as accomplices to the Nazis at this point.
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u/waldothefrendo Mar 13 '23
Switzerland paid reparations for that, they came very late but they still did. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/dormant-accounts_how-switzerland-coped-with-holocaust-funds/44319054
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u/Tainnor Mar 13 '23
As a general note for everyone, "President of Switzerland" is a bit of a misleading term. There is a President of the Confederation, but they're nothing like what one would imagine a president to be.
Switzerland is ruled by a council of 7 ministers that are selected from all the major political parties, the so called Federal Council. Every year, one of those 7 is elected President of the Confederation. The unwritten rule is that they basically take turns; whoever hasn't been president for the longest time will become the next president.
The president has very few additional powers beyond those shared with their 6 colleagues (they can be a tie-breaker, but that's rarely necessary when there are 7 members in total, and they perform certain representative functions). Notably they are not the head of state: the body as a whole is.
So whatever Alain Berset says, he's not just saying it in his own capacity, but as a spokesperson of the whole government. Starting a headline with "President of Switzerland says/does/supports" misrepresents how politics is done in Switzerland.
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u/derAres Mar 13 '23
Glad I scrolled to see your perfect answer, because I was just about to write „deer iz no präzidet of schwizerland“.
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u/khalicia Mar 13 '23
I find it amazing how we swiss just ignore the “fuck switzerland” and other colorful names they call us but go ballistic as soon as someone gets something wrong about our customs
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u/multiplyingduck Mar 13 '23
I mean there’s always worse things than people hating on us, someone could post a rectangular Swiss flag for example. Better to keep our energy for these matters.
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u/Curiouserousity Mar 13 '23
Historically weapon import bans strategically benefits the aggressor in conflicts, not the defenders. The League of Nations passed weapon export ban against Italy and Ethiopia. This solely benefited Italy, which had upgraded their weapons much more recently than Ethiopia. It meant Italy's second invasion of Ethiopia was successful.
The limitation should be focused on limiting arm sells to aggressor nations. If you stayed out of a boxing match, thats normal. If you failed to come to the aid of someone getting raped or murdered, you're morally wrong. Ukraine is literally fighting for survival. Neutrality is a clear support of of the Aggressor, ie Russia.
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u/heartbh Mar 13 '23
I really like how you worded it, it’s easy enough for everyone to understand why true neutrality is dumb.
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u/Bobmanbob1 Mar 12 '23
Of course, their banks are full of fucking dirty Russian money.
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u/GlobalTravelR Mar 12 '23
As opposed to the dirty Nazi money they hid away before.
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u/makebbq_notwar Mar 12 '23
As opposed to the dirty (insert totalitarian regime here) money.
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u/PregnantPony70 Mar 12 '23 •
Ah, and therefore the true intent of 'remaining neutral'.
Maximum profit!
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u/mvpilot172 Mar 12 '23
And if the regime fails then guess who keeps the funds.
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u/DrEpileptic Mar 13 '23
It’s literally just win-win for them no matter what. It’s just at the cost of other countries and peoples.
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u/AradIori Mar 13 '23 edited Mar 13 '23
...And no country can go against them because their dirty money is also likely being held in switzerland.
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u/Asimpbarb Mar 12 '23
And old Nazi gold that’s been forgotten. Swiss are neutral as long as the banks get fed.
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u/Bobmanbob1 Mar 12 '23
Yeah. I'd love to see their banks get audited for 1933 to present.
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u/lewger Mar 13 '23
They've already found plenty of dental fillings in their gold, that tells you what you need to know.
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u/Crimbobimbobippitybo Mar 12 '23
Of course he does, gotta protect that bottom line, which involves lots of dirty Russian money.
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u/reddit_for_stuff Mar 12 '23
Don't they still have gold in their vaults that was extracted from Jews teeth before they were gassed and cremated?
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u/CalDoesMaths Mar 13 '23
It wouldn’t surprise me. I’m assuming they’ve melted it all down and it’s amongst all of the “clean” money where nobody can tell.
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u/kagalibros Mar 13 '23
but secretly they hope russia loses so they can keep the gold like with ww2 germany? kek
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u/CriticalMembership31 Mar 13 '23
Friendly reminder that it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the country that held onto looted Nazi gold from the Holocaust doesn’t have an issue essentially backing Russia.
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u/powerplay_22 Mar 13 '23
gotta love that neutrality eh
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u/RantingRobot Mar 13 '23
What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?
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u/Obvious-Boot-4182 Mar 13 '23
Wish they had Russia as a neighbour. That'd be fun to watch how 'neutral' would they be.
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u/Diogenes56 Mar 13 '23
I believe the Swiss were the only non-Axis country forced to pay reparations after WWII.
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u/No-Conclusion1971 Mar 12 '23 edited Mar 12 '23
The self interested Swiss sit there protected on all sides by NATO countries - countries that share their same values and now won’t stand up for those values or those countries when there is a common attack on those values . Are now actually actively blocking the common defense efforts of Europe. They already showed their true national character in being neutral to the Nazi atrocities. Why is anyone surprised?
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u/capitalsfan08 Mar 13 '23
Woah, Switzerland does not share our same values. The rest of Europe came together to defeat Nazism, Switzerland was more than happy to keep trading them and enabling the theft of valuables from the victims of the holocaust.
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u/UrsusMajor53 Mar 13 '23 edited Mar 13 '23
The Swiss turned fleeing Jews back at the border, or handed them over to the German gestapo when they were not rich enough. Sooooo not surprised.
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u/Middle_Interview3250 Mar 13 '23
then what is the point of buying from Swiss if countries can't use their weapons? is this guy stupid?? sorry, let me correct myself, is this guy so blinded by Russian money and greed that he basically told the entire world Swiss weapons are useless?
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u/Ke_zy Mar 13 '23
As the article says, you can use the weapons you buy but you can’t send them to a third party that is currently involved in a conflit
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u/tickleyourfanny Mar 12 '23
Thats what all the Russian money in Swiss banks will do for you.
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u/Allemaengel Mar 12 '23
Huh, memories must have faded there of what they did (and didn't do) during the last big war in Europe.
I visited Switzerland back in 1984 and found the scenery so beautiful and yet the people were some of the most unfriendly I've ever met. Kind of embarrassing really, since my father's side of the family emigrated from there.
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u/SlashThingy Mar 13 '23
The Swiss are notoriously xenophobic, against everyone. A German who lives five minutes across the border and is culturally and linguistically identical to the Swiss will get racisted against for being German.
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u/MutationIsMagic Mar 13 '23
So they're like Japan. But without any of the stuff that makes Japan cool.
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Mar 13 '23
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u/redditpooopoooo Mar 13 '23
Not really, switzerland has no place that refuse you for being foreigner while japan does
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u/Zoesan Mar 13 '23
The Swiss are notoriously xenophobic
Among the highest foreign born population, so clearly it ain't that bad.
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u/elementgermanium Mar 13 '23
What makes a man turn neutral? Was it lust for gold? Power? Or were they just born with a heart full of neutrality?
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u/annoyingrelative Mar 13 '23
The "Neutral" Swiss showing their true colors once again - Nazi money, Drug Cartels, and Russian Oligarch money do a lot of talking for them
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u/jfreer22 Mar 13 '23
I hereby declare that if Switzerland ever gets invaded that all of NATO takes a neutral stance.
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u/AequinoxAlpha Mar 13 '23
Which won’t happen, because the bastards are lucky that they are bordered by friendly countries and NATO states. Fuck Switzerland.
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u/snow_big_deal Mar 13 '23
I dunno, Liechtenstein is sitting there looking all shady, I'm sure they're up to no good.
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u/Beliriel Mar 13 '23
Switzerland invaded Liechtenstein on more than one occasions. By accident. Also Liechtenstein doesn't have an army lol.
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u/NeedNameGenerator Mar 13 '23
Also Liechtenstein doesn't have an army lol.
That's exactly what they want you to think.
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u/Nislaav Mar 13 '23
Who needs morals when you can dickride the neutrality goldmine full of dirty russian cash
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u/MTheLoud Mar 13 '23
“Swiss weapons must not be used in wars.” Why are they making weapons then? What does he think weapons are used for, monuments on village greens?
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u/MaryCone1 Mar 13 '23
Thank you from the perpetually neutral cantons.
Except when it comes to hiding the wealth of criminals And political despots.
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u/redeemedleafblower Mar 12 '23
I mean they were like this during WW2 as well. When it was literally Hitler, not just Putler. But the Swiss will keep getting away with it because their services are useful to our elites as well.
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u/GayTransconfused Mar 13 '23
Nothing to be surprised about. As the bankers of the Nazis and Criminals world wide; ethics is not a concern for the Swiss.
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u/magnumopus44 Mar 13 '23
There goes the Swiss arms industry. They had a real opportunity here. Can't see how they will make sales now.
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u/FaceyMcMoonFace Mar 13 '23
I suppose they are perfectly positioned, globally, to take the high ground.
I don't see anything wrong with their neutrality. They are surrounded by countries that would happily protect themselves from any aggressor, and by extension, Switzerland. Their position of neutrality is easy to maintain.
Ukraine, on the other hand, don't have the same luxury.
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u/SuxMaDiq Mar 13 '23
Swiss weapons are like Swiss made watches, they serve no purpose but only exist for luxury’s sake then?
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u/eedx79 Mar 13 '23
"Swiss weapons must not be used in wars" I was under the impression that usually weapons are made exactly for that purpose. Good luck on future orders for your weapons manufacturers. You would have to be the most stupid country to buy from them again.
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u/vokelar1 Mar 13 '23 •
"The only reason the Swiss make chocolate is so that we don't associate them with blood diamonds and nazi gold" - Sean Lock