Politique Internationale / Armed Neutrality
Taki
POLITIQUE INTERNATIONALE
ARMED NEUTRALITY
by Taki
GENEVA-I remember the day as if it were yesterday. Hundreds of Princeton students demonstrating behind a giant sign that read: "Nothing is worth...
...Anyone hiking through the forest would know he's in Switzerland...
...Or at least preparing oneself to die for...
...Nothing gives me more pleasure than to cite Switzerland as proof that Utopia is possible if you have free enterprise, a hard-working populace, and a welfare system that excludes the undeserving...
...I guess Teddy Kennedy wouldn't be elected the proverbial dog catcher in my favorite country, but then he never misses an opportunity to visit it...
...And it is the Swiss who have voted on the length of military service...
...But back to happier subjects, such as Switzerland's military preparedness...
...The Swiss, needless to say, have enjoyed 450 years of peace because they know there are some things worth dying for...
...The rest is staggered over the next twelve years...
...In a tradition dating back to the thirteenth century, Switzerland has never ceased to maintain a militiatype army for its defense...
...Cut to a hilly pasture overlooking Lake Geneva on a weekend morning...
...In fact the Swiss even found evidence of KGB involvement in the Zurich youth riots of 1981...
...Yes, I do mean the man who takes out Bianca Jagger...
...The gunfire is not unusual, nor is it unusual to encounter bearded, middle-aged men loaded down with helmets, automatic weapons, and forty-pound sacks at railway stations on their way to refresher courses in civil defense...
...We see ugly women blocking access to submarine bases, hirsute professors picketing enlistment centers, coke-sniffing senators denouncing military spending...
...Every time I happen by the Saanen airport, I see a lot of private planes that carry Arabs and their hookers to Gstaad, but I also notice planes discreetly hidden inside hangars built into the sides of mountains where underground hospitals, barracks, and arms depots are also located...
...But then students, especially at Princeton, seldom get it right...
...Or the fact that we didn't have enough choppers available...
...Because I am a good sport, and don't like to hit a man when he's down, I will not dwell too long on the American effort to rescue the hostages in Iran...
...Or even experienced pilots...
...Cut now to a few locations in the U.S...
...But what I like most about Switzerland, more than its enchanted nature, its cleanliness, its hospitality, its sense of tradition, its safety, and its banks, is the fact that when I mention it by name liberals and left-wing intellectuals reach for their water pistols...
...No wonder Solzhenitsyn said there is absolutely no likelihood of nuclear war, for how could there even be a conventional war...
...The Soviets cleaned up their act in no time...
...Or civilians spending two weeks at firing ranges for small arms...
...Military service, in fact, is a way of life here, with every physically capable male citizen keeping his gun, ammunition, and bayonet at home...
...POLITIQUE INTERNATIONALE ARMED NEUTRALITY by Taki GENEVA-I remember the day as if it were yesterday...
...It is hardly surprising that subverting Swiss public opinion has been the number one priority of the Soviet Novosti news agency (since shut down by the Swiss) and the Soviet embassy in Bern...
...Special roads have been built for use as landing strips, while every bridge and tunnel can be mined and destroyed in a matter of minutes...
...A Swiss male continues to spend approximately two weeks per year with his outfit until the age of fifty, and the only result of all this prudent militarism is a sense of camaraderie that is reflected in virtually every sector of Swiss society...
...Hundreds of Princeton students demonstrating behind a giant sign that read: "Nothing is worth dying for...
...Ministry of Defense officials estimate that in the event of total blockade present stocks, including local food production, would permit both military and civilians to survive for up to...
...It was the day after President Reagan had decreed that all eligible young men should register for the draft...
...Switzerland's system is no more Spartan than needed to keep the peace...
...It is a beautiful autumn day and the only sound is of cowbells and gunfire...
...Swiss males who are unfit, living abroad, or otherwise unable to fulfill their military obligations pay a yearly conscription tax to show they too are doing their duty...
...At the age of 20, men undergo 17-week basic training as the first stage of their compulsory military service...
...They are not about to waste their bullets when they can get what they want for free...
...Who indeed...
...five, yes, 5 years...
...Last spring the Swiss government accused the Soviet Union of behind-the-scenes involvement in the" ..Swiss antinuclear movement...
...Who needs a Spartan state, you might ask...
...Unlike certain Western nations, the Swiss were not afraid to threaten the Soviets with a break in diplomatic relations...
...Our resolve, or lack of it, is known to everyone, including those nicely tailored Mafiosi who run the Kremlin...
...Or a Prest Qent with, well, for lack of a better word, balls...
...What would be unusual is to encounter an anti-military demonstration...
...With a population of six and a half million, Switzerland sports an enlistment rate second only to Israel...
Vol. 16 • October 1983 • No. 10
