Help Stop Sweden's Furtive Accession to NATO

Jan Oberg - Global Research, March 18, 2010

Most likely you think of Sweden as neutral and non-aligned, deeply committed to the UN, to peace and disarmament, and as the country that boasts of having kept itself out of war for almost 200 years. If so, here is how you can update your image of Sweden, outdated as it is by about 20 years.

What I try to say below is that the world needs a reality check when it comes to Sweden. Please read the following and study the indicated website, and then get back to me or respond directly to that website.

An important initiative with international implications has been launched in Sweden.

Its aim is to inform the Swedish people and everyone else about what has been going on behind the backs of her citizens for decades - a furtive process of ever deeper involvement in NATO, with Sweden now facing full membership as a 'natural' next step.

To prevent Sweden's becoming a full member of NATO, we need your understanding and then your help.

Neither neutrality nor non-allignment has ever been that unequivocal. For all practical purposes, Sweden's defence and security has always been West-oriented; and secret agreements had secured that, in case of attack from the 'big threat' to the East, Sweden would be assisted by NATO countries. Why? Because Sweden was also needed in the U.S.-NATO strategic framework vis-a-vis the Big Bear.

The furtive accession to NATO is now on record

Sweden has remained formally and de jure non-aligned, and still is. However, through a series of mechanisms, manipulations, tacit agreements and lack of public debate, successive governments - including Social Democratic ones since the murder of former Prime Minister Olof Palme - have done a lot to move the country into the arms of NATO. The so-called Swedish defence industry is heavily dependent on US/Western technology; NATO exercises take place in Northern Sweden; Swedish soldiers operate under NATO/US command in Kosovo and Afghanistan; its naval officers train together with US colleagues in the U.S., etc.

It was several years ago that then Prime Minister Göran Persson, declared in an article in - in the Financial Times, as I recall - to the surprise of some of us, that Sweden was no longer to be considered a neutral country (a status it has always maintained by political decision, not by constitution decree). That was the end of that, apparently!

Sweden has now moved so close to NATO that we are hearing so-called 'high-level' voices in Sweden argue that we are so close ('engaged') that we ought to become a full member ('marry') and thereby also get the - presumptive - influence on and benefits of NATO membership.
The larger framework - the 3rd NATO expansion

NATO first expanded into Eastern Europe and, secondly, into Central Asia (well it did not go so well in Georgia, but let's seehow that develops). Now comes the third wave due to the ice melting of the Arctic ice cap, resulting in new transport routes to more accessible raw materials and energy resources, and posing the risk of possible confrontation between US/NATO and Russia up there. NATO wants Sweden in its fold, and Finland too. Nobel 'Peace' laureate, former Finnish President Ahtisaari long ago said he is all for it.

Swedish military acting helpless with so little money. Blackmail?

Swedish military leaders - to a large extent supported by academia and media commentators - have for years chanted the tune that, given Sweden's small defence budget and the increasing cost of everything, they can not promise to protect the Swedish people against an attack. Last year this implicit threat - blackmail? - was expressed via an announcement that Sweden's defence system, per capita one of the strongest and most expensive in the world, could not even guarantee the defence of Stockholm, the capital. Oooops, was the predictable knee-jerk reaction by media and people - then we had better get into NATO and get protected there.

There is a considerable risk that this will work - particularly since one must not expect the mainstream media in Sweden to ever ask a challenging question such as: What on earth do you spend all that money on if you are not even able to defend Stockholm and the government in case of attack? Or how can this be, when you can afford to participate on the round in a hopeless war like the one in Afghanistan? Such questions will simply not be asked. Sweden too has a Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex, MIMAC.

Aren't you surprised now? I've been shocked!

Surprised to learn of this? The old image of Sweden as a peace-loving nation struggling to support other small countries' integrity (as once, Vietnam), devoted to the quest for common security, to disarmament and the abolition of nuclear weapons - the country that appointed a series of globally known and respected disarmament ambassadors and whose PM, Olof Palme risked his life to mediate between Iran and Iraq (a service made possible by Sweden's neutrality at the time), the country that always had the strongest of commitments to the principles and aspirations of the United Nations. That Sweden is no more.

This is a serious and sad loss for us who live in the country but it is certainly also a loss for the entire world!

A Dane by birth, I have lived in Sweden since 1972. At that time Sweden was a unique and in many ways visionary country. Of course, I have followed the above-noted process closely over the years and also now and then written about some of the small steps of it.

Nevertheless, when I recently read Al Burke's brilliantly researched and written report that lays out all the details and documents them in a timeline, the systematic tendency of it all became powerfully evident. I was shocked.

TFF wants you to support the initiative "Stop Sweden's Furtive Accession to NATO"

TFF and I are proud to be associated with this initiative from its first tentative steps over a year ago, and urge you strongly to read this well-documented piece of bad news - the hope called Sweden, well on its way to becoming yet another illusion.

Please go to to "Stop Sweden's Furtive Accession to NATO" and learn more.
http://www.stoppanato.se/english/english.htm

Learn the facts, read Al Burke's revealing analysis of the tyranny of small steps towards NATO. Learn about the planned Citizen's Inquiry. And then write to help us turn around this trend before it is too late.

As always, the tools are knowledge, interpretation and dissemination for dialogue and for mobilisation against the growing madness.

Welcome to the debate!