Former US general advises Switzerland to prepare for war
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Former US general advises Switzerland to prepare for war
According to former United States general Ben Hodges, the withdrawal of US troops from Europe is only a matter of time. In an interview with SonntagsBlick, he advises Switzerland to prepare for war.
“The best way to prevent a war is to prepare for it,” said the former commander of the US armed forces in Europe in an interview published on Sunday. Anyone who is unprepared is inviting aggression, he added.
+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
In his opinion, Russia does not respect Swiss neutrality. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that Russian tanks will roll into Switzerland one day,” said Hodges. In the Black Sea and the North Sea, one can see how Russia is engaging in hybrid warfare by disrupting free trade, he pointed out.
+ Leading Swiss politician questions reliability of United States
Nevertheless, the former general had specific advice for the Swiss Armed Forces: “Learn how to deploy and defend against drones across a wide area,” he said. Massive investments must also be made in air defence, in his opinion. He also advised training for large-scale manoeuvres.
‘Europe is no longer a priority’
The US Department of Defence is currently funding 100,000 soldiers in Europe, said Hodges. For him, it is clear that President Donald Trump will withdraw troops. “The only question is when, and how many soldiers he will withdraw,” said the former general. “According to everything I hear from Washington, Europe is no longer a priority.” Trump sees China as the main opponent of the US.
+ Swiss parliament calls for deeper EU security cooperation
From Trump’s point of view, the US would be paying billions for the defence of Europe, said Hodges. The US armed forces are about far more than European security, he added. Europe is a strategic outpost for the country, from where operations in Africa, the Middle East and Eurasia are coordinated. “Incidentally, the US benefits enormously economically from a stable Europe,” he said.
Translated from German with DeepL/gw
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.