Haha, Libya declared war on Switzerland. So much for 200 years of neutrality!

[yllus]

All right Swiss men and women, dig those assault rifles out of your closets! It's (finally) time to give 'er!

Swiss face 'holy war' with Gadhafi's Libya

GENEVA – After two centuries of neutrality, Switzerland found itself in a bizarre and unprecedented situation Friday, facing a would-be "holy war" announced by Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.

The Swiss government declined to comment on Gadhafi's latest salvo in a simmering diplomatic saga stemming from the Geneva police's 2008 arrest and brief detainment of his son, Hannibal, and his wife for allegedly beating up their servants.

Although Gadhafi's jihad declaration late Thursday was widely viewed as a stunt by a leader given to outlandish behavior, the danger was difficult to dismiss in an era of Islamic-Western foment over issues ranging from headdress bans in Europe to faraway Middle East disputes, Iran's nuclear program and Nordic newspapers' caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Analysts urged caution and Swiss citizens and politicians expressed alarm that a nation which managed to steer clear of direct involvement in the world wars and other bloody European conflicts was being dragged into an increasingly messy — if still nonviolent — conflict with an unpredictable government.

"You never know with crazies," nationalist lawmaker Oskar Freysinger told The Associated Press. "I can imagine that this won't be taken very seriously. But nevertheless, it's the head of a state making a declaration of war against Switzerland."

There was no sign of a security alert, however, or heightened official vigilance.

Gadhafi called for the "holy war" ostensibly because of a recent Swiss referendum that banned the construction of new mosque minarets in the country. He also urged Muslims everywhere to boycott Swiss products and to bar the country's planes and ships from the airports or seaports of Muslim nations.

Many here saw the proclamation as another act of revenge. Hannibal was released after two days, but Tripoli retaliated by recalling diplomats from Switzerland, taking its money out of Swiss vaults, interrupting oil shipments to the neutral country and preventing two Swiss businessmen from leaving Libya.

 

[Jaskalas]

You have to wonder how many Muslims inside Switzerland take this seriously.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Gadhafi isn't an Imam and lacks any authority to declare a "holy war". Also, Gadhafi used the word Jihad, which can but does not have to mean "holy war" at all (no more or less than the word crusade does in the west).

 

[Nitemare]

You have to wonder how many Muslims inside Switzerland take this seriously.

all 3 of them?

 

[CanOWorms]

He's just joining the international trend towards bashing Switzerland, be it over the Minaret situation, Nazi-like political parties, or tax fraud.

 

[Jaskalas]

all 3 of them?

4.26% of the population as of 2000. It has probably doubled since then.

 

[Modelworks]

Moamar is still hanging on I see. Him and Castro should get together with Chavez and throw a seniors dictator party, they can have it at Kim Jong's place. Ahmadinejad wouldn't be invited he is too far out there for even them.

 

[AshPhoenix]

Gadhafi is a clown, he is known in Arab countries as "the lunatic of Lybia". Many Arabs make fun of him because he so solemnly claimed in an Arab Summit that he is "Imam of the Muslims and king of kings of Africa" !

As a Muslim I find it a shame that such a mad dictator uses Islam in his dispute with Switzerland.

 

[Hacp]

Can we nuke libya now?

 

[CanOWorms]

Can we nuke libya now?

What about Switzerland?

 

[bobsmith1492]

What about Switzerland?

You want Switzerland to nuke Libya?

 

[CanOWorms]

You want Switzerland to nuke Libya?

No.

 

[Craig234]

He's just joining the international trend towards bashing Switzerland, be it over the Minaret situation, Nazi-like political parties, or tax fraud.

Switzerland deserves attack for supporting tax evasion.

At first, it seems like some harmless romantic system of secrecy.

But when you realize it's really stealing from other governments by being a parasite and helping other countries' rich get awya with tax evasion for their own proft, it's not so harmless.

Hundreds of billions a year are evaded by this sort of thing, and that hurts societies. We need a lot betted enforcement against tax evasion - which will help the poor and middle classes.

 

[Matthiasa]

Switzerland deserves attack for supporting tax evasion.

At first, it seems like some harmless romantic system of secrecy.

But when you realize it's really stealing from other governments by being a parasite and helping other countries' rich get awya with tax evasion for their own proft, it's not so harmless.

Hundreds of billions a year are evaded by this sort of thing, and that hurts societies. We need a lot betted enforcement against tax evasion - which will help the poor and middle classes.

And how would that help the poor and middle classes?

 

[bobsmith1492]

Switzerland deserves attack for supporting tax evasion.

At first, it seems like some harmless romantic system of secrecy.

But when you realize it's really stealing from other governments by being a parasite and helping other countries' rich get awya with tax evasion for their own proft, it's not so harmless.

Hundreds of billions a year are evaded by this sort of thing, and that hurts societies. We need a lot betted enforcement against tax evasion - which will help the poor and middle classes.

There's nothing special about Switzerland. People can hide cash out in the woods if they want.

 

[daishi5]

And how would that help the poor and middle classes?

He believes the money will be spent wisely by those governments in ways that help the lesser members of their society.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Switzerland isn't neutral. Never was.

 

[MotF Bane]

He believes the money will be spent wisely by those governments in ways that help the lesser members of their society.

Because government knows best.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Can we nuke libya now?

I would rather nuke Switzerland than Libya. Of course it would be better to not nuke anyone. However, perhaps we can do other measures that can topple the Swiss government?

 

[CanOWorms]

There's nothing special about Switzerland. People can hide cash out in the woods if they want.

I fail to see how stashing your cash out in the woods is equivalent to acts such as backdating documents.

The truth is that Switzerland is responsible for the loss of billions of dollars. They are an enemy of the United States. The only reason they are protected is because they are in Europe and many Americans support Europe over the United States. It took Obama, a president with less love for Europe, to really start cracking down on one of the largest attacks on America.

 

[Matthiasa]

He believes the money will be spent wisely by those governments in ways that help the lesser members of their society.

... I see... The odds of any government actually doing that are just about nil.
Far far more likely of them just padding the paychecks of those who pay them the most.

 

[Craig234]

He believes the money will be spent wisely by those governments in ways that help the lesser members of their society.

While you still maintain the 100% rate of people not getting it right saying my view, your post was muich better and more innocent, and is partly right.

I'm against excessive government and taxation. But to those who are for ridiculously low rates, who would obliviously destroy society in pursuit of a cultish ideology just as Greenspan oversaw the risk to our financial system in the pursuit of his, they don't get that. I'm against that and for the right levels. But while I'd post opposing excessivle spending and taxing, it doesn't come up much with such people.

The most direct harm is twofold.

One is that the excessivel concentration of wealth is very destructive to society in many insidious areas, and directly harmful to the lower and middle classes. Huge tax evasion by the rich conctentrates wealth more.

Secondly, Governments have to raise X tax dollars in a year. If the rich are underpaying by hundreds of billions, that's hundreds of billiions more shifted off the rich to the low and middle, as tax or deferred tax.

As for your point, there's some truth to it. Not every dollar spent is for the good of the lwer and middle by any means, but simply opposing all government certainly throws the baby out with the bathwater.

Much of it IS good for the lower and middle, and that's our system, based on democracy and is a lot better than the alternative of the rich not having to worry much at all about the lower and middle.

As I said, in our system being too weighted for the rich, the first spending cuts tend not to be the ones against the rich, but against the poor and middle.

We need to fight tax evasion and work with other countries - Switzerland and the Carribean nations especially - to reduce it. The reduced evasion reduces the tax burden on others.

 

[FaaR]

But when you realize it's really stealing from other governments by being a parasite and helping other countries' rich get awya with tax evasion for their own proft, it's not so harmless.

It's bad enough Swiss banks directly aid and abet criminal activities in other countries by hiding taxable assets in their protected bank accounts and profit from that, but they also act as money laundering centers and facilitators of frauds and other "white collar" crime. They pretend to not know by half-looking the other way, but they know these things go on in their banking system; there's no way they couldn't. And they earn money off of this criminal activity it as well of course, which pretty much makes them accomplices to those crimes. Of course, other tax havens like the Caymans and so on are just as guilty and maybe more so in fact, but it doesn't excuse what the Swiss are doing. The only (genuine) reason they have these laws of bank secrecy is so that they can profit off of shady people's need to do shady business. There's no other valid reason.

Then there's the matter of all the stolen Nazi riches that had been left forgotten in Swiss bankvaults. The greedy racist Swiss bankers fought tooth and nail to not have to give up their blood money, eventually I believe they had to give up only a minor part of the stolen treasure back to their original jewish owners. This happened some years ago, and I'm not swiss so I'm not entirely up to speed with that story.

They're fairly gigantic scumbags the lot of them, though. Not all Swiss, but their top bankers.

 

[Lemon law]

While there is no sense in defending Switzerland for some of their banking abuses, I have some sympathy for the delusions of someone who an acquaintance of mine called Kagoffie.

I mean come on, what damn good does it do it be heap big shit in your own dung hill country, when you can't beat your own servants with impunity on the international stage?

But its in many ways the mirror image if GWB&co, the USA is hardly a dung hill country, but do we have the right to run roughshod over international human rights?

Only my hairdresser and my army knows for sure.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Can we nuke libya now?

do you ever say anything remotely intellegent????