Beards of Glory

Citizens of eSwitzerland, we now find ourselves in the midst of a war with our German neighbors. They've come not out of spite or seeking revenge but for lulz, nazi gold, and cattle. To make it plain and clear for all, we are going to lose this war. Germany is bigger, stronger, and most importantly has a lot more friends than we do and at this rate, ever will.

For a very long time eSwitzerland has been led towards a path by many of its politicians towards neutrality. While this might have been more justifiable in V1, war has changed. Declaring war on eSwitzerland or any other small nation isn't just free but it's actually become beneficial with the introduction of new resources. The cattle provided to us by the admin could have been taken as a blessing or a curse for diplomatic relationships with our neighbors. We could have rented out just one of these regions to France, Germany, or Slovenia with the promise of protection from the other two but we opted to be selfish, displaying some misguided sense of bravado and pride in our eSwitzerland that we were out of reach from neighboring powers. Somewhere along the line in our isolationism we decided eSwitzerland was above the idea of being invaded and our eCountry would stand forever. I feel I need to remind these politicians that eSwitzerland has a long history of being conquered and ruled by other nations. France, Italy, Hungary, and now Germany. As long as we remain ridiculously underpopulated and without friends in Europe we're destined towards a path of destruction and occupation. Isolationism will make eSwitzerland nothing more than Europe's whore.

Now, I'm not arguing that we need to pursue returning into a crumbling alliance as soon as we reach independence. I'd probably argue strongly against joining any alliance that feels a small nation suffering from severe political turmoil is the one owing anything to the brotherhood and not the other way around. If eSwitzerland is to have a future in making friends it will have to be with our neighbors France, Germany, and Italy. We can't rely on a foreign power no matter how strong they may be to guarantee our independence. If any countries impose a threat to our independence it will always be the ones whose borders have been set next to ours. We have something different and special in Western Europe that any one of these potential "friends" might want to loan or make a cheap deal for. If we ever do get this opportunity in the future we need to take it. Giving up a resource we have dupes of will be no hit to our economy especially if the country we give it to can guarantee our independence.

eSwitzerland, we've made a lot of mistakes in how we've gone about governing ourselves. We've fought for too long amongst ourselves. We are a greater threat to ourselves than Germany or France could ever hope to be, and until we understand that and try to change it we're doomed for failure and occupation. For far too long we've been two very different eSwitzerlands which I see being Eleriel's Switzerland and Clifford's Switzerland. While both groups went about trying to enrich and empower the country by their own methods they effectively isolated half of the population during their rule. Too much banter and accusations are thrown across the aisles even today. Is it painfully obvious that Clifford's policies of neutrality and isolationism might be what has brought this war upon us? Of course it is, but why is that the major concern at this point?

Fellow eSwiss, we can't ignore one half of our country anymore and do our best whilst in power to reverse any progress they've made to it.

We can't remain an isolated nation without a friend in the world.

We can't go on being two countries in the midst of an everlasting political civil war.

We can't make empty accusations about one another and continue with trivial media wars.

But most importantly we can't blame Germany for our own failings. It is time that we accept what has brought us to this point and learn from it. Know this my people of eSwitzerland, Germany will come out of this war victorious, but just as well we can win this war too. We may never be as strong as Germany for the course of Erepublik's life. We may never have as many friends, as many regions, or as strong a country as they do. One thing we can match or even surpass them in, is unity.

So I say let the Germans come and rape our cattle. Let them bathe in our glorious nazi gold. If they need to burn the eCountry to the ground then let them if it means we can come out of it as one country.

So in closing I say to you eSwitzerland to know that when we fight, we don't fight Germany. We don't fight for our independence. We will fight together to be one country. We will fight together because it is a united goal we can all share and because we know that out of our inevitable conquest we can erect a stronger country.

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