Hey Harry, I would keep my hands off the Swiss. They have six months rations in every house and are required to carry and know how to use a gun by the government. No privilege there. I suspect Hitler would have found his equivelent of Vietnam had he invaded that mountain country filled with violent people just itching to protect their homes. They kind of remind me of the Aztecs who destroyed their own homes and left nothing for Cortez the brute. I hope Iraq is not that for us.
REH ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christoph Reuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 8:22 PM Subject: [Futurework] FT PR vs. Historical Facts (was Re: "Survivor" -- FT PR vs. Human Nature) > It's a pity that Harry is so frustrated about the Swiss example > disproving his ideological dogma that he thinks he must libel > Switzerland with injust allegations: > > > Don't use a fortunate little country like Switzerland as an > > example. Had the British surrendered in 1940, Hitler would have > > rolled over Switzerland in15 minutes when he got around to it. > > Perhaps with the acquiescence of the population two thirds of > > whom are of German ancestry. > > Actually, 600,000 troops at the border and massive fortifications > throughout Switzerland (I can show you around in Alpine bunkers etc.) > made it clear to Hitler's generals that an invasion would have been > way too lossy to be worth the try. > > Harry's racist implication about "German ancestry" (nazi genes or what?) > ignores our 700-year tradition of resisting German/Austrian despots, > of which Hitler was hopefully the final one. > > It seems that Harry's historical ignorance makes him confuse Switzerland > with other small countries like Austria, Czechoslovakia or Denmark, which > actually didn't bother to keep troops at the borders or even to fire a > single shot when Hitler's troops came, so they were quickly occupied by > Germany. Worse, Czechoslovakia supplied a third of Hitler's tanks, and > "neutral" Sweden supplied 90% of the steel for Hitler's armaments after > Russia quit supplying steel. Sweden also allowed Hitler's troops to march > through, to occupy Norway. > > As for the British, these heroes appeased Hitler as long as he was useful > as a bulwark against communism (both inside Germany and on the continent). > Appeasement only ended quickly after the Hitler-Stalin pact. > > > > Certainly small countries, which not only > > escaped fighting Hitler, but also actually profited from the > > slaughter, are probably in a good position to luxuriate in > > Nannydom. > > The USA "escaped fighting Hitler" for 3 years after he invaded Poland, > even waited for Hitler to declare war to them, and only entered troops > after watching Russia sacrifice almost 20 million of its people, when > it started to look like Russia could win the war and march on to the > Atlantic -- can't allow that to the evil commies! > > The USA and Britain "actually profited from the slaughter" a lot more > than CH did, and unlike CH, they were co-responsible for Hitler's rise > in the first place (Dubya's grandpa etc. even funded the NSDAP) and > had an active interest in getting rid of the leading technological- > scientific competitor of the era. Why should CH clean up the mess > that other countries had created ? (As with Saddam, Osama, Pinochet, > Noriega, etc. etc., it's only fair that those who created the monster > should repair the damage too.) It was expensive enough to keep > 600,000 troops (of only 4 million people) at the border for 5 years, > build/extend all those fortifications (incl. fighter airports in the > mountains), and endure hardships (lack of food and raw materials) that > the USA never had to endure. Far from "luxuriating in Nannydom"... > > Chris > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
