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Originally Posted by Slartibartfas
Belgium was strategically very important, Switzerland was not. Not in those specific cases. The geography did also help a lot in favor of the Swiss.
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Well I'm certainly not claiming that the geography couldn't be considered a factor, but I still think that the policy is more important.
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Belgium could have militarized as much as it wanted, it would not have saved them, unless they would have ruined their economy and put every single coin into the army already before the war and even then...
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A successful insurgency doesn't have to be expensive. See: Iraq. The Swiss policy was simply never to surrender. The President told them that any alleged surrender would be Nazi propaganda and should be ignored. If the vast majority of your population is willing to fight to the death, you make it very costly for a foreign power to try and invade you.
Iraq is thwarting the will of the most powerful military on earth with a small minority of its population. Imagine if the majority of its people were participating in the insurgency.
Granted, in comparison to the U.S., the the majority of Nazis were totally ruthless and had no regard for any human life, but still, there are instances where they were beaten by people who were far less well equipped. They could have overrun the Swiss, but they could have never ended the insurgency. And the "victory" would have been incredibly costly. And, no "what ifs" are set in stone. Its possible that the Swiss could have repelled them. The terrain could have aided them just as the climate aided the Russians in their victory.