(You can choose or or both)

Friday, February 27, 2015

Neutral <> peaceful

Heureux sont les artisans d'armes...

Parait-il que les exportations d'armes depuis la Suisse ont pris l'ascenseur en 2014.

J'ai une fois entendu quelqu'un (un bon suisse) expliquer que la neutralité suisse ne vient pas du fait qu'ils sont artisans de paix, mais plutôt de l'histoire des mercenaires suisses qui ne voulaient se couper des marchés potentiels en faisant des alliances.

(Ceci dit, d'après le rapport de la SECO, les armes ne sont pas exportées vers des méchants dictatures)
Blessed are the arms makers...

Swiss military weapons exports soar in 2014.

I once overheard someone explaining that Switzerland isn't neutral because the Swiss are peace loving, but because historically as mercenaries, they needed to keep their client base as large as possible.

(That said, they don't seem to be exporting to too many blatant dictatorships)

Also, this from a former assistant director of the FBI (via The Intercept - you should read the whole article):
If you’re submitting budget proposals for a law enforcement agency, for an intelligence agency, you’re not going to submit the proposal that “We won the war on terror and everything’s great,” cuz the first thing that’s gonna happen is your budget’s gonna be cut in half. You know, it’s my opposite of Jesse Jackson’s ‘Keep Hope Alive’—it’s ‘Keep Fear Alive.’ Keep it alive.


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