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.
Tangentially related, he once said: “I had a German tell me one time, he said, the two pillars for us are NATO and the EU. NATO is for life, EU is for quality of life.” I wonder how that’ll play out in the near future.
EDIT: corrected link.Has the USA ever won a war?
Every war they’ve ever declared. They just haven’t declared war since WW2
If anyone is interested in the state of things in Switzerland:
Our defense is in chaos right now. A scandal in our state-owned but public weapons manufacturer just broke a few weeks ago and shortly after the secretary of the departement of defense announced her resignation. We will see if the newly elected one will improve the situation.
The army is generally seen as somewhat of a joke, especially by people who served, which is more than half of all Swiss men. We like to call it a “Pfadiverein” (boy scouts association).
Even with all that, the right wing parties want to give a shitload more money to defense, and cut costs in social spending and foreign aid to compensate. Left of centre the need to improve defense is also accepted, but 1) before the army gets more money, they need to get their shit together and 2) more important than the army itself is integration with the european security Infrastructure (the left parties are also very pro-EU). The centre politicians usually mix blth stances and lean more one or the other way.
Also we still stand to buy fighter jets from the US, and only the left parties are calling to cancel the deal.
Then you don’t understand what’s REALLY going-on:
Trump wants to smash Canada & Greenland, so that between Trump+Musk on ALL of North America + Greenland,
& Putin-backed-by-China,
the hated-by-them EU can be DESTROYED,
& then they get to be the ONLY “kings” ruling the world.
FIGHT TO THE DEATH TO SAVE EUROPE’S LIFE, if you have to!
Trump’s declaring war against Canada, my country, is certain, within 2-2.5y, maximum.
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Trump’s declaring war against Canada, my country, is certain, within 2-2.5y, maximum.
I only think you’re optimistic in the time frame. I’m expecting within 6 months, Trump will try. He will fail, because he fails to understand how many USians will take up arms to defend Canada, from within the US itself.
Once that happens, it’s game over for the US. I honestly think it will be the spark that causes civil war, and this time, a dissolution of the union.
I project within 10 years, the United States will consist of about 15 states, and the rest of the states will be split into their own countries, with one of them possibly incorporated into Canada.
My guess is the NE gets turned into another province, and the Pacific Coast states will be the own country; in the end, likely about 20 years out.
Oh, while the US is waging TOTAL WAR against Canada, 3y from now, if anyone think that China-backed-Russia isn’t going to be rampaging Europe, they’re mindblind/incompetent.
This is THE GREAT FILTER: humankind’s species-“puberty”.
Grow-up transformation either will be earned, by some remnant of our world’s people,
XOR
the galaxy will be silent of our-kind, permanently, by the end of this century, forever.
Natural Selection, it’s called, within an Extinction Event, too…
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I don’t know what form of stroke you just had, but as a fellow Swiss - [email protected] summarized it beautifully. To stay on topic, with our current military / defence setup; we’re fucked.
“According to everything I hear from Washington, Europe is no longer a priority.” Trump sees China as the main opponent of the US.
This didn’t start with Trump, it has been building for a long time. I haven’t seen anyone spell it out so clearly before though.
Soo. Uhh… what exactly happens when US loses it’s soft power and trust in Europe and Europe slowly cozies up to China?
Frankly I think Trump sees western nations not led by dictators as threats.
Maybe you weren’t paying attention when Obama was president? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_foreign_policy_of_the_Barack_Obama_administration
Oh, this is exactly what I was saying, this has been going on since Obama.
Anyone taking bets which Country gets threatened next I’m thinking Jamaica had to hand over 50percent of its rum.
“Puerto Rico needs to end it’s vicious trade war against the US or risk it’s government being overthrown and made a US state.”
They better start exporting their bountiful electricity! They got so much of it, enough for a good 3 or 4 days of AI questions about how awesome our beautiful leader Mr orange is.
This isn’t really a threat, because the person saying it doesn’t make those decisions.
It’s high time that we throw out the US army from Europe. They’ve been waging war in the middle east from Rammstein for decades.
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Because Russia and the US like to invade countries on trumped up claims, and one facing conequences is bad looks for the other one too?
As bad as it sounds, if our European leaders can get their head out of their collective US-aligned asses, it could finally be a push to a more cohesive EU-defence policy that is not dependant on US logistics and firepower.
We have allowed ourselves to be way to complacent for far too long.
it could finally be a push to a more cohesive EU-defence policy that is not dependant on US logistics and firepower.
I think the main reason why the EU doesn’t care much about defense is that their people don’t “value” war as much as other nations.
They live comfortably. They have their social services. Life is pretty good, for the most part.
Trying to convince them to go die in a war isn’t going to be very popular. I genuinely believe the Western world is in for a rude awakening when an actual conflict breaks out.
It’s not just logistics. These are people’s lives.
Collectively European nations have the economy and technology to build a Military Industrial Complex to rival the US… I hope they truly wake up before it’s too late, least the birthplace of western civilization also become it’s grave 😢
US has a dependency on EU logistics
Not after the US sanctions said logistics :D
I hope this is what comes of it.
There are silver linings like this. The good news is that if we fight now, Trump will have destroyed a lot of the institutions (both domestic and foreign) that were holding back real progress. Clears the way to build better ones.
Switzerland… war… lol
Switzerland is always prepared for war. Prepared to stay the fuck out of it and profit from it.
I mean, if that’s an option …
Doing my service 🫡 (I am a conscript and don’t want this)
My exact reaction lol. News is like satire now.
Humans are so fucking stupid.
Standing in the middle of a fully stocked supermarket saying, “well, I guess this is it. We have no choice but to kill and eat each other.”
Most are ok. It’s the spoiled nepo babies who’ve grown into privileged assholes that are the problem.
some people have to vote for them and put them up there. So i would say most is accurate sadly :/
Plus the morons that keep voting them into power.
Plus the morons that keep voting them into power.
Nobody voted Schmusk into power.
I mean… It’s not like the signs weren’t there.
But everybody who wanted to could have known that Trump was going to appoint the most comically unqualified people.
electoralism is not the root cause of this particular problem
Ele… what? Phew, for a second there I thought I had accidentally posted on .ml again.
electoralism. sorry for using hard words, didnt know you were a ‘hurr ml’ person.
it means that fascism would get to power anyway, regardless of you scribbling on a paper in favour of diet fascism or not.
So how do you decide who gets to govern, if not through elections? And yes, I am very much a “hurr ml” person. I’ve rarely seen such an accumulation of blockheads outside r/thedonald, back in the day.
Elections don’t work when education has been systematically degraded. Elections don’t work when there are no restrictions on the amount of contributions that oligarchs can contribute to a political candidate. Elections don’t work when there is no safeguard against election tampering. Elections don’t work when oligarchs own the media.
its not about deciding who to govern here. burgeois elections in a burgeois state will only elect people aligned with their agenda, which means you will keep walking towards fascism regardless of who wins an election, and none of the alternatives will actually enact your will, even when they have a majority. democrats and their warmongering are especially bad to us in the periphery of the planet
as for solutions, join a leftist political organization or union. it will involve talking to people around you, striking, helping and building community and participating in direct action with systemic change in mind. the more people get involved, deeper gets the change we can enact. it doesn’t have to involve capitalist institutions at all. in most socialist/anarchist systems they chose their leaders, yes, by debating and voting in a council but that assumes the system is not rigged against us, which pretty obviously is in capitalism for the reasons mentioned above and more.
you think us as blockheads because you probably read no political theory beyond liberalism, if that. be more open minded towards leftists, and do a bit of studying and you will notice our ideals are close to the left-leaning liberals. we think you as blockheads because you keep trying to change things in a misguided or misinformed way that is pretty obviously not solving any problems.
you can shake your fists all you want at the hefty percentage of people that recognize this (not only us leftists btw, which are a tiny minority in the US) and doesnt bother to vote, but you won’t change anything because a compelling candidate for leadership is not viable in the current system. my country has mandatory voting and nothing changes either, electoralism is not the solution.
I don’t get what happened here. Did you really said “electoralism is not the root cause of fascism”, meaning that power would end up corrupted no matter what, and people actually downvoted you on .world, meaning they would think that electoralism IS a problem ? That’s not at all the cliché I have for either .ml and .world folks.
Or, since your original comment was edited later than its reply, did you edit it to make it say something else ?
I added the word root, because i recognize it bears some influence. im not a native english speaker so sometimes what i type diverges from what i mean.
clarifying: i mean that elections have already been corrupted and just a show. as evidenced by the fact the “more reasonable party of moderates” enacts more and more right wing policies to the point they are actually just conservatives now. this is not just an US phenomenon either, i live the same dilemma.
People let them stay in power
Most
Are you sure?
In any event, its probably a game of tug of war, and the decisions we make as a society depend greatly on how society’s parents were raised.
The game is abusing the reserve currency to fund your defense. The US extorts third world countries into accepting its inflation by utilizing USD, which funds its military, and Europe figured it would be able to coast on the the US doing this in perpetuity.
The problem the US faces is China stopped recycling into US treasuries, and other countries are following suit. So the world is changing and rates will be higher globally moving forward, hence Europe’s sudden goal of rushing in a CBDC by October.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nHd_1QEC5r4
I’m not crazy right, clearly aging demographics and higher yield treasuries are the cause of all of this instability the last few years?
Yes I’m sure, because most people are not psychopathic, sociopathic or super-rich assholes.
In fact only a few are at least 2 out of 3 there. The problem is they’re also the ones with the most power.
The question at hand is stupidity. I’m not sure why you invented different problems to discuss.
This type of discourse is pretty common around here though…
Just my opinion. Take it or leave it.
US troops often withdraw leaving way too much equipment behind.
I better not see civilians with “cool military” gear! That’s worse than any weeb or m’ladyian/fedorian.
But maybe I get to burn a Humvee or two since we “lack” those (now obviously surplus too) cybertrucks over here.
Shoving helos off a carrier deck comes to mind, when we were actually trying to evacuate refugees instead of lowering plane flaps to push off the hangers on. Guess the Taliban has Strykers and MRAPs now just like our cops, yay murica
I feel sorry for their mechanics.
They’re about to learn the real lesson of the Big Green Weenie…logistics
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Lmao this guy
I’m so ready to never fly or drive to the 51st or 52nd states or Alaska. Alaska and Hawaii and Puerto Rico are the WTF parts of the US. Like how come they are not just independent nations?
Well, we sort of toppled an empire when we stole Hawaii, it literally was independent
Understood. I mean California Oregon, Louisiana and Texas were Mexican at some point and mexica before the Spaniards.
Oregon was British, thank you very much!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Country
FYI - The history on the Hudson’s Bay Company is FASCINATING!
Louisiana
Now France has entered the chat too! But yes, your point that history gets messy depending on the lense being used remains (at least, I hope I am not misrepresenting you)
Well it was Spanish from 1763 to 1803. The USA began existing in 1776…in July of that year. When the French arrived, various Native American groups, including the Atakapa, Caddo, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, Natchez, and Tunica tribes, lived in the area. You’re totally right, it was actually never Mexican.
Even the California and Oregon thing is sort of a stretch. Like I’m sure there were settlements per the historical record. But I very much doubt they were actually identifying as the Mexicans we know and love today. More like Spaniards and their slaves. There’s actually a really old history pre-USA of mejican exploration to create a trade route to China. Lots of Chinese people traveled for trade to the Philippines and Mexico and the same for Mexicans. Along the trade route you can find all sorts of intermixing… Mexipinos, chinexicans, japaxincans, etc.
It wasn’t called Louisiana before the French named it that, I was just having fun with the way you phrased to things
Yeah no worries. It got me googling.
Hawaii was an independent nation, until they allowed some US business interests in. Those businessman bolstered by a US Marines contingent + some artillery and a tugboat with a single cannon on it invaded when a new constitution was written by the Queen that would strip the companies of some power and give it to the poor. They imprisoned the queen. After a failed attempt at rescuing her and a “trial” by a hastily set up “US military court” she signed over the country to the US in exchange for the release of her would-be rescuers, who would have been executed. In 1993 the US apologized to Hawaii and acknowledged that the actions had been illegal and a coup d’tat of a legitimate government, and an illegal use of military force. But there were no reparations or offers to return Hawaiians to power.
Many Hawaiians are still pretty vocal that they’d like the US to get the eff out of their country. They are disorganized though and theres a colossal amount of white wealthy that are against making the injustice right in even small ways. Capitalism is insidious and unaccountable. It doesn’t balk at murder and uses laws only when it benefits them and ignores them otherwise.
Adding to this (and also, thank you for spelling out what I only hinted at): That last queen wrote a book to tell the story of what happened.
Her brother, who was the last king of Hawaii, wrote a book of Hawaiian mythology, too, that is worth checking out if that’s your bag.
Ruined by capitalism. Time and time again
It’s hard to know where to begin with people like this. They are more ideologically unhinged than anyone in the Middle East, more indoctrinated than any communist, more institutionalised than a life sentence prisoner, and more ignorant than a drunken donkey.
I think you’ve misunderstood. It sounds like you’ve interpreted the headline to mean that General Hodges is threatening to invade Switzerland. Perhaps you only read the headline and not the actual article.
"The best way to prevent a war is to prepare for it,” said the former commander of the US armed forces in Europe […] The US Department of Defence is currently funding 100,000 soldiers in Europe, said Hodges. For him, it is clear that President Donald Trump will withdraw troops. “The only question is when, and how many soldiers he will withdraw,” said the former general. “According to everything I hear from Washington, Europe is no longer a priority.” Trump sees China as the main opponent of the US.
Hodges is stating the reality that Trump will withdraw US troops from Europe in the future, regardless of how bad an idea that is.
From Trump’s point of view, the US would be paying billions for the defence of Europe, said Hodges. […] “Incidentally, the US benefits enormously economically from a stable Europe,” he said.
Trump is the kind of moron who only understands short-term profit (especially profit for himself) and doesn’t give a shit about long-term international cooperation. Some very bad decisions are going to be made in the near future.
Hodges understands the value of European relationships but also sees the inevitability of what’s coming and is trying to make the reality of it clear.
Pooh! I like your country! I need it, give it to me!
I don’t think you know anything about Switzerland., infact, I know you don’t.
I mean… nothing substantial, I guess you’re right… but I’m also not claiming to know anything about Switzerland. I’m claiming to have actually read the article, and to have some reading comprehension which you are evidently lacking.
lol, wat
I have that user tagged previously as a Russian Troll. Just ignore him.
They aren’t sending their best.
I think you hit the nail on the head with that “you just read the title” and now they’re mad for being called out.
Embarrassment can cause people to lash out in irrational ways.
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