When you hear your national anthem and see your flag raised high, chances are you probably
feel a swell of pride for your beloved home country.
And that's cool.
But sometimes, countries do things so boneheaded, even the greatest of patriots has to facepalm.
Here's a look at moments that embarrassed entire countries.
Switzerland's accidental invasions of Liechtenstein
The European state of Switzerland is most famous for watches, fine chocolate, and for
remaining neutral during wartime.
And it's a good thing they remain neutral, because if you ask their neighbors in Liechtenstein,
the Swiss army isn't particularly competent.
Why?
Well, over the years, the Swiss have managed to accidentally invade Liechtenstein multiple
times, including one scary incident in 1968 when they mistakenly attacked a ski resort
with live grenades.
The folks in Liechtenstein have gotten so used to it at this point that they usually
just shrug it off, like in 2007, when 170 soldiers accidentally wandered more than a
mile over the border.
A military spokesman from Liechtenstein said nobody even noticed the invasion had happened.
He told The Guardian,
"It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something."
The Great Emu War
Down in Australia they have these enormous flightless birds called Emus.
They seem cute, but back in the early 1930s, they became a real problem, as flocks of emus
were ravaging crops across the land.
So the government sent a crack army squad to track down and slaughter as many emus as
they could in what became known as the great Emu War.
Armed with machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, the 7th Heavy Battery would
seem to be more than a match for a bunch of big birds.
On November 4th, 1932, the troops ambushed a group of roughly a thousand emus.
Shockingly, it turned out that emus were almost bullet proof, resisting all but the most direct
hits.
Over the course of the action, the army didn't even manage to kill a dozen emus.
[Grunting and yelling]
A week later, they gave up and retreated.
The officer in command, Major C.W.P.
Meredith, was in awe, saying
"If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any
army in the world.
They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks."
Lock and load, boys.
Bushu-suru
State visits are usually pretty boring affairs.
But when U.S. President George H.W. Bush visited the prime minister of Japan, Kiichi Miyazawa
on January 8th, 1992, he found an interesting way to spice things up.
During the ceremonial dinner, President Bush turned and vomited right in the Prime Minister's
lap, then fainted.
According to The Atlantic:
"The term Bushu-suru — ブッシュする, 'do a Bush' — became a joke staple of Japanese
slang."
Unsurprisingly, it means "to throw up in public."
There are better things to be remembered for, though at least it led to some funny parodies.
[Vomiting] "I don't remember eating that!"
Britain accidentally invades Spain
Move over, Switzerland, because you have company when it comes to accidentally invading the
wrong country.
You wouldn't think it would be so common, but in 2002, a heavily armed platoon of British
Royal Marines rushed the San Felipe beach in the Spanish town of La Linea during a training
exercise.
They were met by a surprised fisherman who informed them they were not, in fact, in the
British territory of Gibraltar - something they should probably have been able to deduce
considering the Rock of Gibraltar is a world famous, 1,398-foot tall-landmark.
According to the Independent, the commanding officer in charge of the mishap contacted
his superiors and informed them, "I'm afraid we've invaded Spain, but we don't think they've
noticed."
They did actually notice, but the town's mayor, Juan Carlos Juarez, was cool about it.
"They landed on our coast to confront a supposed enemy with typical commando tactics.
But we managed to hold them on the beach."
Operation Cottage
Not all embarrassing war maneuvers are funny, though.
It's mostly been forgotten now, but during World War II, Japanese forces actually occupied
a small part of Alaska, setting up a base on the Aleutian Islands.
In 1943, the combined forces of the United States and Canada launched Operation Cottage
to seize the islands back.
Landing on opposite sides of Kiska Island, they converged, intending to trap the Japanese
between them.
What they didn't know, though, was that the Japanese forces had already abandoned the
island entirely.
In the thick fog, the Americans and Canadians each mistook the other for the enemy, and
engaged in a massive battle that left 92 dead and numerous more wounded before the error
was discovered.
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