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Swiss in Liechtenstein 'invasion'

B

BoyBach

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 24, 2006
3,031
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The traditionally neutral Swiss army has staged an unplanned invasion after troops blundered into Liechtenstein.

A 171-strong Swiss company got two kilometres into its neighbour before realising the mistake and heading back.

Liechtenstein authorities made light of the intrusion, saying they only knew about it when the Swiss told them.

In 1985, the Swiss had to pay Liechtenstein compensation when rockets fired by its army went astray and set a forest ablaze.

'All so dark'

The latest incident began on Wednesday night during a routine training exercise for the infantrymen in the Alpine forests close to an unmarked section of the border.

The company commander led his men in the wrong direction in bad weather but gave the immediate order to return when realising the error.

"It was all so dark," one soldier told the Swiss newspaper Blick.

A spokesman for the Liechtenstein authorities said: "It's not like they invaded with attack helicopters."

The BBC's Paul Legg says the incident is embarrassing for the Swiss but not as bad as the one in 1985.

The countries became embroiled in a lengthy dispute when the protected forest was set on fire.
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- BBC


Oops!

:D
 
:D :D :D

This could have been very embarassing and potentially a political firestorm but instead it was treated like the honest mistake it was.
 
Brize said:
When the Guardian reported this yesterday, they linked to a story from 2002 where the British Royal Marines invaded Spain by mistake. :D

http://www.guardian.co.uk/gibraltar/story/0,11525,652616,00.html
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Instead of being fired on with blank rounds by fellow British soldiers pretending to be the enemy, the marines found themselves being stared at by startled local fishermen.

The enemy, when they appeared, turned out to be two blue-uniformed officers from La Linea's municipal police force, who informed the detachment of marines that they were not, as they had thought, in Gibraltar.

"They were told that they must have made a mistake. This sort of thing does not happen very often here," a police spokesman in La Linea said yesterday.

The marines beat a hasty retreat and went off to find the real Gibraltar. This, locals observed, was easily recognisable because it had a 1,398ft high rock sticking out of it.
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Brilliant! :D
 
I think I'll write a conspiracy movie wherein someone kidnaps all the world heads of state and replaces them with Swiss counterparts. World peace ensues as only rare accidental invasions occur and soldiers quickly retreat back to their own borders. :D
 
Perhaps the British invasion of Iraq could be excused as just a ghastly mistake? You know, an orienteering exercise gone wrong, bloody TAs can't do anything right, what do you expect of a bunch of part-timers, that kind of thing? Might be a convenient way out for Gordon when he assumes the position (after Tony joins the Carlyle board and finds himself having to explain what he's up to to George Soros, the major shareholder....)
 
Peterkro said:
The Brits have a habit of doing that kind of thing numerous times whilst stumbling about the north of Ireland they've stumbled across the border on several occasions involving helicopters.
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All completely by accident of course. Nothing to do with looking for arms stashes or USA-funded terrorists of course.

Just like our other good comrades in the USA who we jokily tease with holding the world record in stumbling across other nation's borders and forgetting what they were doing there. Oh it's all fun and games here in trans-national jokery, no-one really minds of course.
 
skunk said:
Perhaps the British invasion of Iraq could be excused as just a ghastly mistake? You know, an orienteering exercise gone wrong, bloody TAs can't do anything right, what do you expect of a bunch of part-timers, that kind of thing? Might be a convenient way out for Gordon when he assumes the position (after Tony joins the Carlyle board and finds himself having to explain what he's up to to George Soros, the major shareholder....)
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Sounds good to me,it could've been used early,well we didn't know it was Poland we just got a bit lost then things snowballed and it all got completely out of control.
 
RedTomato said:
All completely by accident of course. Nothing to do with looking for arms stashes or USA-funded terrorists of course.

Just like our other good comrades in the USA who we jokily tease with holding the world record in stumbling across other nation's borders and forgetting what they were doing there. Oh it's all fun and games here in trans-national jokery, no-one really minds of course.
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More likely in the case of the undercover bods surveillance of people of interest whose details could be passed on to the death squads.Incidently I find all this about as funny as cancer.
 
skunk said:
Perhaps the British invasion of Iraq could be excused as just a ghastly mistake? You know, an orienteering exercise gone wrong, bloody TAs can't do anything right, what do you expect of a bunch of part-timers, that kind of thing?
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"You sure you're reading that map right, Private? This doesn't look like the bloody Lake District!"
 
skunk said:
Perhaps the British invasion of Iraq could be excused as just a ghastly mistake? You know, an orienteering exercise gone wrong, bloody TAs can't do anything right, what do you expect of a bunch of part-timers, that kind of thing?
Click to expand...
welshandrew said:
"You sure you're reading that map right, Private? This doesn't look like the bloody Lake District!"
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Wasn't that what that other Tony, Antony Eden, said about Suez?

Oops duckie, lost our empire there. Never mind eh, make us a cuppa darling.
 
Small countries should not play with rockets, they could have someones eye out!

Hey when did they start putting rocket launchers on the Swiss Army Knife...I want one:cool:

Mum used to confiscate my air rifle if I fired into next door...can't NATO intervene.

We should not be suprised that the British army try to invade Spain. Hell Wellington thought he was in Abersoch, any nation that does not speak English is fair game.:)
 
skunk said:
Perhaps the British invasion of Iraq could be excused as just a ghastly mistake? You know, an orienteering exercise gone wrong, bloody TAs can't do anything right, what do you expect of a bunch of part-timers, that kind of thing? Might be a convenient way out for Gordon when he assumes the position (after Tony joins the Carlyle board and finds himself having to explain what he's up to to George Soros, the major shareholder....)
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You've been reading the Daily Express again. It was a ghastly mistake...but we were not orienteering we were playing follow the leader.
 
so bbc found it to more news than local newspapers ? haha way to go

since liechtenstein and switzerland have a defense agreement (liechtenstein has no army) it's not that much of a problem
not only that .. they are also members of their customs region so there are actually swiss policeman standing on the liechtenstein border to austria ;)
 
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