Sweden implements compulsory military service amidst "Russian tensions" but there is more to the story

More military-ready than the actual military?


The decision to re-introduce a military draft in Sweden has caught the media's attention. According to the press, Sweden's new conscription rules come on the heels of growing tensions between NATO and Russia. But there is more going on here.

In 2015, just over half of Sweden's 4000 military training slots were filled. It is estimated that the turnover for recruitment must increase nearly 50% to meet demand. So Sweden is having a difficult time recruiting people for service. What gives?

In the American military, patriotic feeling alone can inspire young adults to serve. But a career in the American armed forces can also lead to world travel to safe areas like Japan, health care benefits and priority in professional and educational placement in the long term. The Swedish military, by contrast, offers just a career in the military. It follows that patriotic feeling and military-mindedness have been the primary motivators behind the decision to serve.

But the state image is increasingly built around policy and the goal of creating a diverse, multicultural, immigrant-friendly and degendered state; does this agenda not distance the traditional breed who, because of their love of Swedish culture and their appreciation of heritage, choose the military? And what about the state's reverse-gendering and decision to raise boys to become effeminate men? Is it also less likely that they will take an interest in the military? Both of these factors deserve closer scrutiny and appear to be symptomatic.

To remedy the recruitment problem, Sweden has implemented a military draft, targetting even women.  This speaks to Sweden's degendering agenda and seems reasonably fair considering that, compared to 1990, nearly 20% more Swedish women are childless into their thirties. The women aren't raising families, anyway. But in the event of a conflict, those who are drafted will be pinned to the dying corpse of the EU, the brain center of lib-left globalist policy, and asked to defend a project. Would one even wish to fight? Here is one take on the issue, particularly in view of all the brouhaha about Russia: