From Agence France-Presse:

Geneva — No Swiss fighter jets were scrambled Monday when an Ethiopian Airlines co-pilot hijacked his own plane and forced it to land in Geneva, because it happened outside business hours, the Swiss airforce said.

You simply cannot make this stuff up. Granted, Switzerland has sort of made it “their thing” to avoid any territorial issue more dangerous than a Von Trapp family crossing, but this is embarrassing. Yes, the Swiss haven’t had much need for a military, but this is the result of policies and cultural values. And, one might posit, it is the result of generational dependency on the sacrifice of others.

Swiss airforce spokesman Laurent Savary told AFP…Switzerland relies heavily on deals with its neighbors, especially France, to help police its airspace outside regular office hours.

Just because you don’t need a military today does not mean you’ll never need a military in the future. It’s stage-one thinking. It’s erecting for yourself a fantasy land where trouble will only e between thehours of 8 AM and 12 PM (or then again between 1:30 PM and 5 PM).

It’s along the same distorted lines of the European Union’s laws requiring employers to pay for their workers’ longer and longer vacations, fining small businesses for staying open later than petitors, and ensuring talent-less hacks are impossible to fire.

The European Union is an entity well versed in the art of fantasy land creation. They give Tolkien and Lewis a run for their imaginative money when es to concocting creative canvases on which they can paint the world the way choose to see it. But unlike the landscape of an Inklings’ novel, the lever-pullers of western bureaucratic states can’t easily erase the impact of a well-intended plot line gone awry.

Are we any better? Perhaps today we are, but how can we avoid the same regrettable (and ultimately dangerous) path?

I know Dr. Gregg has a few thoughts on the matter.