Thread: Sweden prepares for War.

Originally Posted by bob10

Sweden preps for war with Russia

Nah, not quite.

Originally Posted by Jojo

Nah, not quite.

Sweden has ramped up defence spending, reintroduced the draft, and placed permanent troops on Gotland, the first time in 10 years. What are they preparing for, a visiting English soccer team, and their supporters?

Sweden to reissue World War Two emergency advice booklet as fears of conflict with Russia grows

These articles are 'an utter piece of rubbish', to say the least. Probably written by an attention seeking scaremonger...

1. The Defence Budget has been increased, true, after about two decades of constant cuts. This increase has been on the cards for almost as long and has been expected for quite a while, but never materialised due to lack of governmental funds.
2. The draft/conscription has always been in place but never been enforced since the late 80's. All young adults reaching conscription age would receive a letter, informing them of their (possible) duty and those keen to try could do National Service for a period of (I think) 6 months. The only difference now is that since about two years back you have to make an active choice by logging into a website and answer a couple of 'yes' and 'no' questions. Answering 'yes' will allow you to do National Service, if answering 'no' one won't, without any further consequences.
3. Gotland has always been a garrison, well, parts of it, but for the last decade at least not much military personnel has been stationed there due to the lack of sufficient staff and equipment (see defence budget cuts above). It has never been planned to evacuate Gotland permanently but due to differences in opinion of how to use the strategic location in future no plan had been developed. The military properties have been used for commercial purposes in the meantime, some of the harbours even leased to a Russian company for freight management (Gotland is still a major commercial centre in the Baltic, but its importance has been on the decline since medieval times). What the military is doing now is taking over some of their properties again, among others a training area on the west coast of Gotland (which is a pity as this was a perfect location for Land Rover Club events). Again, this is not a surprise move.
4. As for the booklet, this has been in print since the 50'ies (I believe) and been available since. The only thing happening now is that the authorities are producing an updated version, which, I believe everyone will agree when looking at the old fashioned outfit of the original one, is definitely on the cards.

I have never considered 'The Sun' as a reliable source of information and would definitely restrain from using it as reference.

Originally Posted by Jojo

These articles are 'an utter piece of rubbish', to say the least. Probably written by an attention seeking scaremonger...

1. The Defence Budget has been increased, true, after about two decades of constant cuts. This increase has been on the cards for almost as long and has been expected for quite a while, but never materialised due to lack of governmental funds.
2. The draft/conscription has always been in place but never been enforced since the late 80's. All young adults reaching conscription age would receive a letter, informing them of their (possible) duty and those keen to try could do National Service for a period of (I think) 6 months. The only difference now is that since about two years back you have to make an active choice by logging into a website and answer a couple of 'yes' and 'no' questions. Answering 'yes' will allow you to do National Service, if answering 'no' one won't, without any further consequences.
3. Gotland has always been a garrison, well, parts of it, but for the last decade at least not much military personnel has been stationed there due to the lack of sufficient staff and equipment (see defence budget cuts above). It has never been planned to evacuate Gotland permanently but due to differences in opinion of how to use the strategic location in future no plan had been developed. The military properties have been used for commercial purposes in the meantime, some of the harbours even leased to a Russian company for freight management (Gotland is still a major commercial centre in the Baltic, but its importance has been on the decline since medieval times). What the military is doing now is taking over some of their properties again, among others a training area on the west coast of Gotland (which is a pity as this was a perfect location for Land Rover Club events). Again, this is not a surprise move.
4. As for the booklet, this has been in print since the 50'ies (I believe) and been available since. The only thing happening now is that the authorities are producing an updated version, which, I believe everyone will agree when looking at the old fashioned outfit of the original one, is definitely on the cards.

I have never considered 'The Sun' as a reliable source of information and would definitely restrain from using it as reference.

Good points. How about the BBC ?

Sweden brings back military conscription amid Baltic tensions - BBC News

I found these four answers to the question. Interesting.

4 Answers - Is Sweden really preparing for war? - Quora

Originally Posted by bob10

Good points. How about the BBC ?

At least the BBC's article is way more nuanced. Anyway, as stated in my previous reply, nothing of all this comes as a surprise as all of this has been discussed and prepared for over a decade at least. There is some incorrect information in the article nevertheless, e.g. about conscription among some other points. As I stated above, they will only take people who positively agree to do National Service (and so it has been all the time), which the article doesn't mention.

It is interesting to note that only some American/English sites seem to take up the issue, none of the Swedish news sites nor those of other European countries which language I have a command of are having anything to say about this stuff. Probably because it is regarded as common knowledge and been expected for quite a while.
Links to Swedish News sites:
The major newspapers (more conversative)
Svenska Dagblad
Dagens Nyheter

(more liberal):
Göteborgs-Posten

the tabloid papers:
Aftonbladet
Expressen

the national TV:
SVT

the national radio broadcast:
Sveriges Radio


The answers in your other link posted seem to confirm my claims.