Since we were just talking about the Swiss...
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nf1OgV449g&feature=player_profilepage

Switzerland has a crime rate that we could only hope to have one day.


Switzerland was also the only European country not taken over by the Germans in WW2; Jews in Switzerland were not rounded up and taken away in cattle cars. They maintained their freedom.

Or as Machiavelli said:
"The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom."

So you are saying Switzerland is about like....



Texas?

Have you forgotten that Sweden was neutral in WW II?


Hitler asked his Generals what would happen if he invaded it.


"They would fight like HELL", he was told.






Hitler could have rolled up Switzerland in a week if he wanted to.

Surely you cannot be propounding the idea that just because the Swiss people had handguns and rifles they could have stood off the Luftwaffe, the SS and the Wehrmacht???!!

Why does everyone treat Hitler like god? He was taking over a completely pacified and controlled (chemically and sociologically) populace that was all but totally disarmed. He had the wealthiest entities funding him, some of the brightest and most fit men in the world to engage in the actual battles, and lead them. A f***in 10 year old could have done at least as well as he did.

That said, Switzerland would have been like the Spartans. Germans wouldn't have known what hit them. They would have gained little and all but wiped out a good enough portion of the troop count to bring the war to an end. Let's be real, an armed populace, trained and invested in IT'S OWN DEFENSE is awful hard to beat and impossible to occupy. (See: Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan...) Unless they're trained to be slaves, and that's not real easy. Hell it's been going on here for at least 100 years and still, gun sales are at an all time high for fear of government tyranny.

on the topic of the mighty gun...

the pen (in the hands of, say, greenspan, wall street, framers of nafta, etc.) seems to have been proven to be mightier than the sword (or gun, if you will) - at least in the last twenty years.

(unless you've figured out how to "gun down" the national debt and the trade deficit? )

(and the swiss' hands aren't so clean re: wwII, collaboration etc.)

The Germans didn't invade Switzerland because it would have been very costly. To costly for what they would have gained.

Switzerland is a mountanious country, and all Swiss males are well armed and know how to shoot. So you would be invading a country of snipers. The Swiss can raise an army of half a million fairly quickly, even by WW2 standards that was pretty good.

Just look at the Finish war of 1939 to see how it works.

I remember reading about a coversation between a Swiss general and a German general. I forget their names. The Swiss general said I can raise an army of half a million men. The German general said well what would you do if I invaded with a million men? The Swiss general simply said, I would instruct my soliders to shoot twice!:D

They didn't JUST have hand guns and rifles-they had automatic weapons and they know how to use them. That is exactly why ****ler didn't attack Switzerland. Look at what a few poorly armed jews with a strong will to live did in the Warsaw Ghetto to the Germans. Imagine what would have happened if the were well armed and trained like the Swiss.

A wise man once said, "A will that has sacrificed everything including survival on the achievement of a definite chief aim will very likely prevail."
Very few other countries had the will to win, just to survive, and so, they lost and were conquered. Napoleon Hill wrote a very interesting piece on the German, Japanese, and Russian mentality of that period. Now days, the Taliban, Iraqis, Afgans, etc. have that kind of will...

Hitler didn't invade Switzerland because he didn't need to. The Swiss, armed with any weapon, were not standing in the way of Hitler's plans. Besides, the Nazis needed a safe place to send their money.

The Swiss refused entry to thousands of Jewish refugees while the Swiss government already knew that they would be sent to the camps and would face death.
There is no reason to celebrate the Swiss for there roll during WWII.

Not hardly. The Swiss profited off the investments that the Third Reich and the displaced Jews made in their country, to the point that they paid 80 BILLION dollars some years ago to settle claims that they had illegally kept the money of the dead Jews, and did it without batting an eye lash. I think it was 1996.

They were the bag men.

it is a small country with a lot of mountains. the mountains make Switzerland a more difficult military target. In addition, Switzerland never felt the need to go out into the world and conquer other countries.

by not allowing every tom, dick and harry to enter their country they have maintained their national integrity. we, on the other hand, have allowed just about anything that walks or crawls to move in.

here are some photographs of some of those we have allowed to move in letting us know exactly what they think of our great country........

http://michellemalkin.com/2006/03/29/the-american-flag-comes-second/

Actually, way back in medieval times the Swiss were the most feared mercenaries on the European continent. One of the Holy Roman Empire's popes made an agreement with Switzerland to assure their neutrality.

Okay, here's a link. I didn't read anything in this story about an agreement with a pope so that part might be attributed to my faulty memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_mercenaries

Bingo, we have a winner. Switzerland maintained its "independence" because of their banking industry and reputation for extreme discretion on financial matters. If the Swiss ever outlived their usefulness they would have been no match for Nazi Germany.

I stand corrected. I didn't realize that was their history. makes sense though....it appears the decision to remain neutral has served them well.