On Monday we brought you the latest from the main train station in Stockholm, where “gangs” of Moroccan migrant children have “taken over” the terminal.
If you believe The Daily Mail, dozens of children, ages nine to 18, are dug in at the station where they wonder about in a drunken stupor attacking security guards, “groping” girls, and “slapping women in the face.”
This rather surreal development comes as Europeans struggle to cope with what they view as the disintegration of polite, Christian society in the face of a deluge of Arab asylum seekers fleeing the war-torn Mid-East.
Many Europeans feel as though their countries have been invaded, for lack of a better word.
Well according to Sweden's Major General Anders Brännström, being overrun by refugees isn’t the only invasion Swedes need to concern themselves with.
"The global situation we are experiencing and which is also made clear by the strategic decision leads to the conclusion that we could be at war within a few years,” Brännström is quoted as saying in a brochure for representatives attending an annual Armed Forces conference in Boden next week.
(Brännström)
“Since the end of the Cold War the Swedish Armed Forces have focused mainly on providing assistance to international missions abroad, but according to Brännström the strategy has now changed to ‘capability of armed battle against a qualified opponent’”, The Local reports, adding that “Sweden has made moves towards stepping up its military capability in the past year, with Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist extending cooperation with other neighbouring countries as well as Nato allies in the face of rising tensions in the Baltic region.”
Of course by “rising tensions in the Baltic region,” The Local means rising tensions between Russia and the West. “Sweden's Security Service Säpo said last year that the biggest intelligence threat against Sweden in 2014 came from Russia [and] its stern words are largely credited with sparking increased Nato support in the traditionally non-aligned Nordic country."
Defence Committee chairman Allan Widman echoed Brännström's sentiments. "My take is that the situation is now so serious that even Sweden, with more than 200 years of peace, must prepare themselves mentally that we can get violent conflicts in our neighborhood and conflicts involving us," he tells Expressen before delivering the following assessment of Vladimir Putin and Russian "aggression":
It will come sooner or later a time when Putin becomes pressured politically. The question is what he does in that state - if he apologizes and runs from the Crimea, or if he takes other measures. We'll have to prepare ourselves for him to take different actions he has shown himself capable of before.
Earlier this month, a poll in Dagens Nyheter showed nearly three quarters of Swedes support reintroducing compulsory military service. "The Swedish Armed Forces are currently short of around 7,500 soldiers, sailors and officers – around half of the total organization – despite running large recruitment campaigns with television ads and billboards in the past few years," The Local said.
If Brännström is to be believed, Sweden may need the soldiers."One can draw parallels to the 1930s," he later told Aftonbladet, before adding that although Sweden "managed to stay out" of World War II, "it is not at all certain that the country would succeed this time."