But it was an accident. Does this mean our Homeland Security Level should go up to Orange?
Here’s the story from the NYT/AP
Swiss Accidentally Invade Liechtenstein
What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.
According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.
A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.
”We’ve spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it’s not a problem,” Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.
Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.
Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. ”It’s not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something,” he said.
Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC…
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Before the Fair Use experts see this. Copying an entire article is a definite no-no (though you may want to decry the erosion of your “freedom of speech” as a defense).
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That said, the story does strike me as amusing — the international equivalent to seeing two octogenarians wrestle.
ok I fixed it.
I’m talking about drawing a line in sand, dude.
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–Walter Sobchak
Maybe the Swiss meant to invade Germany but got lost.
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Liechtenstein is a wealthy country and all that, but could hardly be expected to win a war, even if the Swiss weren’t loaded (so to speak).
…what Monaco is to France.
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I’m surprised that anyone in either Switzerland or Liechtenstein even noticed the faux pas.