"Might the EU crisis get really, really ugly?" (What Do the Swiss Foresee?)

The original XX Committee was an MI5 operation during WWII. It should be read as "Double Cross".
This version is a blog by a professor at the U.S. Naval War College. I believe he is going with the "20" Committee pronunciation.

From the XX Committee:

Do the Swiss know something the rest of us don’t?

Ueli Maurer, the Swiss defense minister, has been making coy statements about the European crisis getting ugly – as in really ugly, like needing armed troops to deal with it. This sounds more like Greece, where the rioting is regular and increasingly scary, than anything in Central Europe, but where the whole EU furball is headed does seem less than clear of late.

The Swiss are famous for preparing for everything and having an absolutely huge army, relative to their population, to deal with any eventuality. They maintain their special military system, based on training for nearly the whole male population but a very small active duty cadre (plus a few, tiny UN peacekeeping-type missions abroad, since the Swiss have an actually defensive defense force): the Swiss can call up over 200,000 trained troops, which is but one-third of what was on-call twenty years ago – like everyone, they have downsized as the threat has receded since the fall of the Soviet bloc – but that’s still pretty huge in Swiss terms. In America, that would mean a mobilization strength of nearly 8,000,000 for the U.S. military (it’s a hair under three million, in case you were wondering).

Minister Maurer, accompanied by whispers from the top uniformed leadership in Switzerland, is trying to raise awareness that Europe’s massive fiscal-cum-political crisis could get very unpleasant. Swiss military exercises in September, called STABILO DUE, were based on EU instability getting out of hand. The Swiss have stayed out of the EU – one more thing the very prosperous Swiss are gloating about these days – and they certainly don’t want EU problems spilling over into their peaceful little country. That the Swiss military is adding four new military police battalions to the army, to be spread around the country, indicates that the threat they have in mind is more disorder and chaos than actual invasion....MORE

HT: Economic Policy Journal

Back to double cross, we have:

 "You can't trust the Swiss, that's the bottom line,"

-Senator Carl Levin
March 3, 2009

See also: "New age of rebellion and riot stalks Europe (Nudists in Switzerland)"

Back in 2009 we glimpsed the dark side of the Swiss:

What is up with the Swiss?
From this, a couple years ago: "Swiss in Liechtenstein 'invasion'", to this: "Swiss banker admits blackmailing BMW heiress" a couple days ago, it's the world turned upside down...

The Liechtenstein invasion resulted in the Liechtensteiners giving the Swiss troops cookies and cocoa.


Just kidding about the refreshments, Liechtensteiners rightly cast a wary eye upon "The Giant to the West."