The Swedish One-Week Army

We may have some world-class recruitment ads, but what will there be left to join in 2014?

Sweden's top general ended 2012 by publicly stating that the Swedish Armed Forces can only defend against one minor attack and only for one week. The Swedish Minister for Defense then conceded that Swedish security policy is basically wishful thinking.

Of course, Minister of Defense Karin Enström did not use such words, but that was the essence of what she said. On top of that, our top general, Sverker Göranson, verified to our nation's one and only defense correspondent, Mikael Holmström, that he still believes it may be necessary to scrap a full branch of the Swedish Armed Forces, due to the defense policy of the Swedish government. Personally, I think the most serious deficiency of the policy is not a lack of funding but what is behind it, a lack of interest and consequently also understanding.

I believe there is little more General Göranson could do except resign in protest.

To say that the above disturbs me is putting it very mildly. Sadly, the civil defense of Sweden is hardly in any better condition. In fact, the Swedish state seems to even lack basic ideas about how to tackle a severe global crisis of some sort.

Strangely enough, our media has largely failed to report that our closest neighbour, Norway, is doing the opposite, spending more on defense during recent years and especially improving training, even prolonging the basic training period for conscripts at the northernmost border. In fact, last fall Norway even established a new branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces, the Norwegian Cyber Force.

The Swedish Armed Forces has three branches, Army, Navy and Air Force. For now.