Swiss neutrality taking a hit?

The Wall Street Journal posted an interesting article here about what some would say are recent lapses in neutrality by the Swiss government.

The Swiss have had a tradition of neutrality for centuries, which is why all the Swiss banks, most notably the UBS, is so famous for its secrecy. However, it seems that President Obama and the US government are trying to through centuries of tradition of another nation down the toilet.

For the record, I have no illegal Swiss bank accounts, however, I still disagree with the US government's actions a couple months ago of in essence forcing the Swiss banks, notably UBS again, to hand over the names of the US citizens who had bank accounts there. It should be irrelevant that these Americans were breaking US law, they were not breaking Swiss law. And the US government's decision to force individual companies from other nations to comply with President Obama's demands seem to be a very ill-advised move.

President Obama criticized President Bush for taking too much of a go-at-it-alone approach, and his criticism has merit, however this forccing of the Swiss banks to reveal some of their accounts is just as much a brazen, "I'm bigger than you and dont care what you think" approach.

Switzerland's attempts to remain neutral, and act as a mediator between conflicting nations is rather admirable, but if Switzerland is seen as a lackey of America, its important role of mediator in the world would likely be diminished. The Swiss have a history of brokering peace, as the multiple Geneva Conventions point out, as well as the numerous pro-humanity organizations that call Geneva home. I feel that any attempts by America to use its influence to force the Swiss government to act in any certain way could have potential negative consequences for the world at large.