Switzerland, an expansionist (future) superpower? :

Friends sent me the link to an article that made my day today:

Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein

The Associated Press
Friday, March 2, 2007; 10:01 PM

ZURICH, Switzerland -- 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, doesn't have an army.

.. found in Washington Post.

Ah, my dear peaceful home country... *^^*

Xinhua, Chinese news source, brought the exact same story however, with a slightly different title..:

Sweden sort of invades Liechtenstein

... all non Swiss out there, please don't make us feel even more insignificant. Mind:

There is Swiss people living in Switzerland
There is Swedish people living in Sweden
Swiss eat cheese and chocolate, Swedish eat liquorice and drink absolute vodka
Swiss ski on slopes, Swedish "ski" on planes/lowlands (no kidding.. ;)
Swiss speak French, Schwiiizerdütsch, Italian and Romantsch (well, at least some of them), Swedish speak Swedish
Swiss have Heidi and Peter, Swedish have Pippi Langstrumpf aka Pippi Långstrump
Switzerland is small, Sweden is bigger
Switzerland has UBS and Nestle, Sweden has IKEA
Switzerland is cold, Sweden is colder
.
.
.
... hence Switzerland NOT = Sweden

*^^*

switzerland, fun, international relations,anecdote