Switzerland has remained neutral since it helped the allied coalition defeat Napoleon in 1815. For over two centuries now, the mountainous, wealthy nation of chocolate and gold, banks and ski slopes, has stayed out of military disputes. Now, however, that policy of neutrality might be at an end because of the russian Federation’s invasion of the Ukraine.
When millions of Europe’s finest young men drenched the fields of Flanders in blood during World War I, poisoning each other and the countryside with gas while turning swathes of perfect pastoral landscapes into moonscapes cratered by artillery, Bern stayed out of it.
When Hitler’s tanks rolled across Poland, then France and the Low Countries, then the Soviet Union, bringing genocide and total war with them, Bern stayed out of it.
When the Soviet Union murdered tens of millions of its own and then, a decade or so later, threatened all the world with nuclear annihilation during the Cold War, Bern stayed out of it.
But now, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin is apparently bad enough (or, more realistically, the “current thing” of the woke Western world – supporting the Ukraine – is powerful enough), that now Switzerland is making a move that could be interpreted as ending that policy of neutrality and getting involved.
It would do so by arming the Ukraine. The indications that it would do so came from The National Council, which recently released a statement saying “The majority of the committee believes Switzerland must offer its contribution to European security, which requires more substantial aid to Ukraine.”
The AP, reporting on what that statement means in real-world terms, reported:
A parliamentary panel in Switzerland has recommended waiving a law that bars countries from re-exporting Swiss armored vehicles, weapons and other war materiel to Ukraine for its defense against Russia, insisting the move would not violate the country’s much-vaunted neutrality.
The Security Policy Committee of the lower house of Switzerland’s parliament voted 14-11 Tuesday to allow an re-export exception for cases involving a use of force that violates international law — notably, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine 11 months ago.
The National Council, for its part, insisted that the policy changes would “respect the law of neutrality” because they would not involve direct exports of Swiss war materiel to conflict zones.
But, regardless of what it says, the changes would mean that war material is exported from Switzerland to combat zones, even if there is an intermediary meaning that it is “re-exported” with Switzerland’s permission.
If, for example, the US allowed the transfer of F-35 from Israel to the Ukraine, that would hardly be treated as a “neutral” move. Even if it didn’t make us active belligerents, it would be something other than strict neutrality, which is to what Switzerland has traditionally stuck.
All the tragedies of the 20th Century weren’t enough to effect such an outcome. But, now, the “current thing” of modern leftism is strong enough to potentially pry Switzerland away from the neutrality that has so far kept it out of Europe’s bloodbaths.
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1
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