When Sweden applied for membership in NATO in panic and with only 47% in favour, the Swedes were told it was a defensive alliance for peace. Now, while trying to enter NATO and building 17 US bases, they are told to get ready for war because these pesky Russians are coming – like they were supposed to at any time since 1949 when NATO was established (and the Warsaw Pact in 1955). But if they were, it would be exactly because of the US/NATO using Sweden as a forward base, possibly also with nuclear weapons.
Here is what Swedish TV 4 reports on January 8, 2024
Commander-in-Chief clear: All Swedes must be ready for war
Micael Bydén: “Serious and it can get worse – even for us”
And he continues his soft-spoken, matter-of-emotional alarmism:
“The situation is not black as night but very serious.
All citizens should now prepare for war in Sweden.
At an individual level, you must prepare yourself mentally,” says Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén.
“There may be a war in Sweden and all Swedes must act to strengthen the country’s resilience.” This was stated by Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M) at the national conference of the Swedish “People and Defence” conference on Sunday.
The Minister for Civil Defence said that the situation is urgent and raised his concern that the upgrading of civil defence is not going fast enough.
Swedish Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén shares Mr Bohlin’s view.
“This is a very serious situation and yesterday’s clarity was unmistakable. It is now a matter of moving from words and understanding to action,” says Bydén to TV4 Nyhetsmorgon.
You may wonder why these statements are made – and why no analysis is backing them up for the public to understand. And without the mainstream media doing anything but holding the megaphones.
If you press the link above to Swedish TV 4 and then press the red button at the lower left, you will – if you speak Swedish – hear the pathetic reason expressed by Commander-in-Chief, Bydén:
“We must understand how really serious the situation is…Watch the media reports from Ukraine and ask yourself the simple question: If that happens here, am I then prepared, and what shall I do?”
For only God knows how many times, it is enough to point to Russia and hint that if Russia could invade Ukraine, it could also invade Sweden (or in other frameworks: Norway, Finland, or Denmark). That’s the Russia, whose military expenditure is 8% of NATO’s! The Russia that has never invaded any NATO country but which, we have heard for about 70 years, intends to do so. Oh my!
This is stated as a mantra. Just say “Ukraine,” and everything is clear. Morally, it is shameless “fearology” against one’s own people.
This type of person does not seem bothered by the decency to provide a scenario or make probable that what they say has any validity. Tell us, Chief-of-Command, what is the – or those – scenarios that lead you to state this? What have the NATO countries and Russia done to increase the likelihood of what you say? How can we, as citizens, know that you are not just inventing things to squeeze more money out of the taxpayers by threatening them with war? What do you base your views on?
And how conspicuous this is! Sweden has never felt threatened but used to be a neutral country with a relatively strong military force and an active neutrality and disarmament policy that commanded respect worldwide. It was a country with integrity, (quite) independent decision-making and sovereignty – at least way more than today (and I happen to know that from the inside, too, at the time).
Suddenly – with prospective NATO membership and 17 bases, Sweden is so threatened, so vulnerable, and the Swedes must prepare for war? What happened to the peace Sweden used to advocate with mediation, arms control, common security (Oh, Olof Palme, who was murdered more than once because he was brilliant and visionary!), independent with a world voice and a strong believer in the UN?
Tell us all here in Sweden what on earth you’re talking about. Give us your arguments and show us the analytical reports. If you have any, that is. And if you don’t, I would argue that there is no reason to listen or to trust you.
Conspicuously, the annual high-level conference in Sälen, Sweden, is attended by ministers, parliamentarians, the King and Crown Princess and all the media – and not one speaker on the two-day program would challenge any of the militarism nonsense and alarmism. Or ask: What is the role of the West in the deteriorating security environment?
No, here meet the Swedish Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex (MIMAC) elites, who listen solemnly to and swallow the intellectualism-defying words of a Chief-of-Defence who comes across as a calm hysteric, a man who seems in serious need of a radical reality check but who, among his intellectually uniformed group think people, of course, doesn’t know that he needs one. Another example of the calm hysteria here.
None of them would be able to say words like: peace, reconciliation, diplomacy, conflict-resolution, nonviolence, defensive defence, negotiations, UN peacekeeping, common security, human security, global security reform, UN intervention, etc.
The other main – unstated – reason for all this alarmist nonsense is that the Swedish people shall be prepared in another way: Not in reality for war in Sweden, but for invented Russian threats that can legitimate hugely increased taxpayer costs to finance the – perhaps – forthcoming Swedish NATO membership and, with 100% guarantee, the 17 US bases that will be established through the already signed bilateral agreement that the Swedish people were never allowed to discuss.
Armament and militarism, with its propaganda, require intellectual and moral disarmament.
And that they deliver in Sälen, in Sweden.
So massive is the never-challenged jibber-jabber that it would require tremendous courage and true democracy for ordinary citizens to ask themselves whether they are actually being taken for a war ride. Because – be sure of one thing: Sweden will soon be involved in a NATO or US war somewhere. For peace, of course. And in a real or invented crisis, those 17 bases will drag the country into war much earlier than would be the case if Sweden had remained neutral with a respected potential for mediation. If it had been a buffer zone with similar neutral buffer zones down through Europe. But such countries are in the way when you want to expand NATO up to the very skirts of Mother Russia…
Anyhow, that Sweden has been destroyed – brick by brick – by decision-makers more loyal to Washington and Brussels than to their citizens’ best interests.
PS 1 Concerning nuclear weapons, the official Swedish position is that that will be an issue to be discussed and decided in the future. But that is not credible – for reasons I have written here. PM Kristersson’s statement in NATO in 2022 about Sweden living up to all its obligations in NATO “including NATO’s nuclear doctrine”, was an outrageously irresponsible commitment made without any decision or mandate by the government and the Swedes at the time.
Furthermore, it is well-known that the US worldwide standard policy is that “we neither confirm nor deny whether we have nuclear weapons with us.” And, so, the Swedish government knows well that it is meaningless to ask whether they have or tell anybody to not bring in or station nuclear weapons. Finally, if the Swedes were told openly that there are nuclear weapons on its soil, there would likely be some kind of nationwide uproar since they have a very strong tradition since the 1950s for being strongly against any Swedish involvement with nuclear weapons.
PS 2 Security and defence policy can no longer be understood through the lenses of political science, international relations, strategic studies or other reasonably rational approaches. Instead, we need psychology/psychiatry, social psychology, macro history, theology and perhaps a dose of eschatology (the study of end times).
PS 3 Here a little about what NATO really is when you cut through the mainstream crap: The TFF Abolish NATO Catalogue.
PS 4 It’s worth pointing out that the Swedish government has also just decided to abandon the tiny annual sum that has, for decades, been made available for peace-oriented NGOs in Sweden. There shall be no critical opinions…