National Defense Through Insanity

You can't make this stuff up:
Most countries attempt to avail themselves of related expertise when selecting Ministers for the various portfolios in their governing departments. For example, Interior ministers generally have some background in the legal or law enforcement professions and Agriculture ministers in either agronomy or economics. Defense portfolios are for the most part assigned to experts in military strategy and tactics. Such is not the case in the example of Sweden where the sitting Defense Minister has recently resigned in protest over budget reductions for the barely existing Swedish military.

"Defense Minister Mikael Odenberg has resigned in protest at government defense cuts. Savings of 4-5 billion kronor announced by Finance Minister Anders Borg were made "without basis or foundation".

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, he repeatedly stated his opposition to the fact that the government had announced cuts in defense spending without first analyzing Sweden's military requirements."

The Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who recently "conferred" with leaders of the Muslim community at a Stockholm mosque and virtually apologized for Sweden's so called "freedom of expression" has named a pacifist to replace Odenberg.

"Accepting the job of defense minister, Mikael Tolgfors said he accepted the prime minister's vision for the future of Sweden's military. Tolgfors refused to bear arms when called up for military service in the 1980s, and was forced instead to perform his national service in the community sector. He later worked for the Red Cross. There, he changed his view of the use of military force after a Kurdish man showed him photographs of Saddam Hussein's massacre in Halabja."

In a related story released last week we also learn that Sweden plans to end its 200 year old policy of universal military conscription and replace it with a "professional" military. It remains to be seen if the socialists in Sweden will agree to a force consisting of one or two battalions or go for the whole hog and fund a complete regiment.