

Facts About the Military Empire of Switzerland - philip1209
http://www.brouhaha.io/switzerland/

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ekianjo
The title is a little abusive, you cannot call a country an "Empire" if it
does not have territories outside of its natural borders, obtained through
conquest or colonization.

Other than that:

> Every Swiss military member must keep their service rifle and ammunition in
> their homes. They may be mobilized with 48 hours notice at any time.

This is definitely true, and there are cases now and then or civilians using
such guns in family-related crimes. Like homicide.

10% of the total population is I think way below the rate of civilians who can
be recruited in the army in case of conflict vs other countries such as
Israel, where both men and women are required to go for military service, if I
recall correctly. South Korea is also one of the other countries which comes
to mind.

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mcv
I was under the impression that ammunition is not kept at home anymore, but
they can quickly get it at a nearby barracks.

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daughart
They can still buy private ammunition. I think you're correct that a personal
military ammunition stock is no longer mandated by the state.

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psuter
Regarding fact 1., consider that today 40% of those theoretically supposed to
serve never wear a uniform for a reason or another (Roger Federer was famously
deemed physically unfit). Switzerland still has an unusually large army, but
it has been shrinking continuously for the last 20 years at least. Some of
these "facts" are stories we tell tourists (and each other...), nothing else.

(Edit: it seems the main source for the original post is a book from the early
80s. That explains a lot.)

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LiveTheDream
Fact 3 is not accurate as of several years ago. Most Swiss soldiers no longer
keep ammunition in their homes. These days only a few thousand do so.

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acjohnson55
Not sure WWII neutrality is all that heroic. I guess it probably makes sense,
with fascism looming on every border after the Anschluss and fall of the
French Third Republic. But still, not what comes to mind when I think
"heroism".

This entry is pretty interesting to read:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_during_the_World_Wa...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_during_the_World_Wars#World_War_II)

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jotm
It was pretty heroic for the country, though... It's easy to enter a war, it's
very hard to stay out of one when you're in the middle of the war zone (they
also profited from it).

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lostlogin
Their banks heroically resisted back giving looted nazi money for 50+ years.

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bwilli123
a country built on profiteering from the corruption,theft and pillage and tax
avoidance of other countries

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CHsurfer
I guess you mean profiting.

Also, Is the US any better? Look at it from the Native American's point of
view...

Finally, information privacy (of which, secret bank accounts are one aspect)
is pretty relevant topic today, and many people on this site would prefer to
have more of it.

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ginko
This page needs cookies activated to be rendered correctly. Otherwise it ends
after the introductory paragraphs.

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philip1209
Sorry, it's running google page speed service. I can disable it.

