			Foreign Correspondent

		      Inside Track On World News
	    By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
		 Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>

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A Nation At Arms
by Eric Margolis

VERBIER, SWITZERLAND - The Swiss take their national
security even more seriously than their fabled banks.  Until
recently, this tiny nation of only 7 million could mobilize
an amazing 600,000 highly-trained citizen-soldiers within 72
hours.

This awesome levy gave the Swiss one of the world's largest
armies, exceeded in Europe only by Russia and Turkey (on
full mobilization).  Each Swiss man of military age
(generally 20-55 years) keeps an automatic rifle, uniform
and combat gear in his home.  Interestingly, in spite of
most households having automatic arms, far more Swiss are
killed each year by falling ice than murdered by firearms,
which should cause control-advocates to pause and think.

Every Swiss soldier is a crack shot and often trains
annually with the same unit year after year.  Most
important, like Israel's superb armed forces, the Swiss
military is built from units of men who live and work
together in civilian life.  Company directors often find
themselves reporting to employees, bankers to taxi drivers,
and so on.  Any failure to perform in the military produces
ignominy in civilian life.

In the past, Switzerland adopted a "hedgehog" strategy to
defend the nation.  The lowlands, such as the Basel region,
were to be abandoned in time of war.  Swiss forces would
withdraw to the central mountain redoubt, which is
honeycombed by underground forts and gun batteries in
casemates.  Jet fighters would issue from camouflaged
hangers hewn into mountain sides.  In the event of war, the
Swiss could blow up their nation's key military objective: 
the nexus of strategic mountain passes connecting Italy with
France and Austria.  Over 2,000 locations are rigged for
instant demolition, including tunnels, viaducts and highway
overpasses.  When I was a student in Switzerland during the
early 1960's, the Swiss even considered, and then decided
against, building their own nuclear weapons.

Some readers may think the idea of heavily armed Swiss as
comical:  rather like cuckoo clock makers with tanks.  The
Soviets, however, took the Swiss very seriously.  The Red
Army planned to outflank NATO's defenses on the Central
Front by punching through neutral Austria and then racing
across northern Switzerland via the axis Zurich, Basel,
Neuchatel - and thence into France's soft, undefended
underbelly.  Yet even the mighty Soviet Army feared taking
on the tough Swiss in this Russian version of the Schlieffen
Plan.

Lately, the Swiss have recalibrated their military forces. 
An offensive strategy has been adopted, based on over 1,100
armored vehicles, new self-propelled artillery, and a more
powerful air force which is uniquely trained to fight in the
high Alpine valleys.  Every inch of Switzerland is now to be
defended.

Unfortunately, many Swiss have forgotten the reasons why a
powerful armed force is needed.  Swiss women, in particular,
who only got the vote fairly recently, have, like most women
everywhere, a deep lack of understanding of military
affairs.  In a recent referendum, a shocking one-third of
Swiss - mainly women - voted to totally eliminate the armed
forces.  Women claimed that the military was merely a big
toy for big boys.  They forget that, in the event of
invasion or civil strife, women are immediately targeted for
rape and murder - as Bosnia so recently showed.  Armies are
expensive and unnecessary - until war comes.

Because of the temporary end of the Cold War, Switzerland is
reducing its armed forces by 33%, down to a mere 400,000 -
but still larger than the ground forces of France, Germany
or Italy.  The armed forces are becoming high tech, with new
electronics and missiles.

Why do the Swiss need such a powerful military?  First,
because the nation has avoided war for the past 200 years,
its last invader being Napoleon.  The main reason
Switzerland was not invaded in either world war was that
neither the Allies nor the Germans wanted to tangle with the
Swiss Army.  Since the future is always unpredictable, the
Swiss continue to take no chances.

Second, national character.  I always recall the stirring
sight of voting day in the Alps.  Swiss farmers and herdsmen
would lead their prize cows, bedecked with flowers and
bells, down to the little Alpine towns to vote in a national
referendum.  Each sturdy husbandman carried a rifle over his
shoulder - as a symbol that the Swiss became the first free
people in Europe, and the first democracy - by force of
their arms.  Nations that forget this hard reality do so at
their peril.

For 250 years during the Renaissance, the Swiss were the
terror of Europe.  Armed with 30 ft. pikes and lethal
halberds (poleaxes), tough Swiss mountaineers crushed the
feudal knights of Austria and France.  At Morgarten,
Sempach, Morat and a hundred other battlefields, the Swiss
phalanxes did as much to destroy Europe's feudal order as
artillery.  Even great Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy,
was slain at Nancy by the Swiss, his armored body hewn
almost in half by a single blow by a Swiss halbardier.  The
sole power capable of finally stopping the "furia helvetica"
was artillery.

Today, the reminders of this former glory are the Pope's
faithful Swiss Guards and the Swiss citizen army.  Like the
ancient Romans, most Swiss still believe that a democracy at
arms is the surest protection from tyranny, internal or
external.

copyright E.Margolis February 1996
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