Why cant our country declare ourselves neutral like Switzerland?

Question

Many of our finest young men are being killed in foriegn countries whose population may not want them to be there in the first place.Why do we interfere?

Answer 1

Because Switzerland doesn't have terrorists massacring its civilians.

Answer 2

The Swiss built up a fearsome reputation as warriors throughout History exporting mercenaries was very big business for them when Napoleon was defeated The Congress of Vienna afterwards declared that Switzerland was to become neutral and could no longer export Mercenaries so in answer to your Question you will neeed to lose a war and have neutrality imposed on you. What you mean is isolationist you can do that tomorrow you dont because the potential economic repercussions would be devastating The US Govt intervenes to maintain World Stability so that international trade flourishes

Answer 3

I don't know what country you are from, but the USA and the UK have no intention of acting with neutrality. They are acting unilaterally in their mutual national interests, with no regard for the human costs. The simple fact is that oil production on Earth has peaked, and within a few years there will simply not be enough oil produced to meet the worlds needs. Every year demand grows, and having reached peak oil production (oil reserves being FINITE) supply will dwindle, leading to massive price increases, and resource wars. The American & UK gov'ts have realised that when the lights start to go out those who have possession of the oil will be on top (at or at least they will be the last one's with lights & industrial capability, before it runs out for good in 20-50 years). Because of this the last five years have been all about manufacturing pretexts for unilateral attacks and building media consent. Make no miskate, the terrorists are a boon for the Bush/Blair administration - how else would they be able to convince the world it was a good idea to attack Afganistan->Iraq-> soon to be followed with Iran->North Korea? The USA created bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, and now they are using him to the full. The Saudi's have a saying "My father rode a camel, I drive a car, my son rides a jet, his son will ride a camel." The oil party is nearly over, folks - google 'peak oil' and prepare yourself. It's going to be a cataclysmic event in human history, and these are the first rumblings.

Answer 4

Well, I happent o live in swizterland so I might be able to shed some light on this, I assume you are from the US.

Some of the other comments have suggested that the US cannot be neutral because it has been, or will be attacked. It is perhaps worth noting that the chief reason why nobody expects switzerland to be attacked is that the swiss have not done anything which could be seen as provoking such attacks for a very long time, the same sadly cannot be said for the US. I think if there is such a thing as a war on terrorism, then it is a war of ideas and ideals and the most powerful way in which a nation can protect itself is by behaving consistently and virtuosly in terms of its foreign policy, or failing that by a policy of non-interference such as switzerland has. There can be no conventional victory against an enemy that controls no territory and has no single centre of control; in this sense victory comes through right actions which cause the terrorists to lose the support of those who at present still shelter them.

The first thing is resources, the dependance of the US on imported resources, especially oil, means that purely from a security perspective the US needs to ensure that global politics runs in such a way that the US will continue to recieve the resources it needs. i.e. It needs to ensure as far as possible that the governments of oil producing states will remain prepared to sell oil to the US for market prices (or somewhat above due to the OPEC cartel, though OPEC's power is limited now as supply is genuinely tight).

Compare this to switzerland. Most of switzerland's power is from nuclear power and hydro-electric power. Uranium can be obtained from relatively stable western democracies e.g. Australia, and hydro power doesn't require imports from overseas. Swizterland does still require oil for cars and to some extent heating, but here the swiss can rely on the US and on market forces to ensure that the oil producers keep producing (even without US intervention, oil producers would probably keep supplying oil because they have few other sources of income and a sustained stoppage in supply would cause them short and long term economic problems due to loss of income and the switching of other nations to substitutes).

The second main answer has to do with the nature of the military in switzerland compared to the US. In switzerland every man between the ages of 18 and circa 50, does compulsory military service and there are very few career military. Every man has his gun in the basement, but there is almost no standing army. This militia (in the form the founding father's intended the 2nd amendment to promote) is well suited to defending a country from invasion, but is poorly suited to carrying out campaigns like the gulf war, especially if they are unpopular, because with a militia "the army is the people" i.e. you don't just send soldiers to war, you send bankers and butchers, cooks and workmen.

As a final note, the reason the founding fathers favoured this kind of army, the militia, is because without a standing army there is no way for the government can concievably use the army to oppress the people, because the army is the people, hence a militia is a great protection against tyranny and I think right now you folks could with all the protection from tyranny you can get, the beliefs of the present admistration, relating to unlimited presidential power are truly frightening.

Answer 5

Now what fun would it be to be neutral?

America is full of and run by people that know better (or at least think they do). It is our nature to tell others how to live their lives and run their countries.

Seriously, being the wealthiest nation on earth comes with its share of responsibilities. One of them is helping out other countries that can't fend off tyrants and "rebels" that want to overthrow governments and run the nations like a religious state. Slaughters happen to innocent people, and it becomes a real mess. And our best interests become threatened by this (like our oil supply we use and get from the middle east).

If you want to look at it another way, the Nazis didn't want us in Germany to fight them, but we went because they were murdering people that didn't fit their ideal of the "perfect race". What makes their lives and the lives of the men that fought in that war more valuable than the lives we are saving in Iraq. Sadam was murdering the people that opposed him and their families - he was a tyrant. He was on the same plane as Hitler, only he didn't make it so obvious.

We interfere to aid those that need aid. Yes - some don't like us doing that, but we do it. I feel pretty good about what we do. I don't necessarily agree with going off to fight a war, and I definitely don't want soldiers to lose their lives, but if you ask most of them, they will tell you why they are fighting. They believe in this country. We should be supporting them and hoping they come home soon.

Answer 6

It's a vicious circle: we invade because our leaders believe the country/countries pose a threat; the country/countries pose a threat because we have invaded them or their ally before and so on. Because Britain is so old (assuming you are British), we started feuds over land, wealth and other resources hundreds of years ago, and we just haven't got round to sorting them out again. America (assuming you are American) has entered wars because their allies (mainly Britain, since it has been in the British Empire) have, and/or threats posed indirectly to them, and also hasn't got round to sorting them out. Switzerland, on the other hand, is a fairly new country, so by the time it was created the world (or at least Europe) had become more of a global village and more advanced, so it didn't need to start wars.

In short, Britain is old, so when it invades old enemies, it gains more and gets threatened.
America feels threatened a lot, so it attacks to stop the threats and gains more threats.
Switzerland is new and doesn't have any allies like Britain and America, so it doesn't feel threatened.

Answer 7

First off, your army is made up from VOLUNTEERS.

They probably knew they would be going to war, in fact, most were counting on it!

If they had no war to go to, more than a few of them would be aggressively hanging around YOUR neighbourhood, with nothing to do.

As far as being Neutral, that would mean abandoning all the countries you have allied with over the past three generations.

No more treaties, and while the government is ripping up those, maybe they should just tear up the deed to your house or car.

And maybe your citizenship papers too?

You are better of interfering with them over there, than someone interfering with you here.

Answer 8

Neutralism only had relevance when it was Axis vs. Allies or Commies vs. Free World. Even Switzerland let NATO through their country to go to Bosnia. What you are referring to is isolationism whose leading advocate is Pat Buchanan. Last time he ran for president he got about one percent of the vote, so it's just not a winner.

Answer 9

News Flash!!!
Switzerland is bottom feeding country!
Keeping your head in the sand doesn't make people like Pyongyang stop from threatening world peace. Just like it didn't stop Hitler. Although Switzerland claims to be neutral that has never stopped them profiting from war. I'd rather be the one trying to stop men like Pyongyang, Bin Laden, Sadam, and Kagame then the one just counting the money. As sad as it is (my niece's husband is in Iraq) Someone as to be the one that has the balls to stand up and stop them from destroying more then their own country. Because as history has shown time and time and time again, evil cannot be contained by boarders.
9/11 and 7/7 proves that

Answer 10

You can declare what you want, it doesn't stop people invading or attacking you.

As the saying goes...When good people stand idle...evil prospers.

Would you watch an old lady in the street get mugged and do or say nothing simply because you are 'neutral' ?

You might not agree but it's worth thing about.

Answer 11

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