Månad: februari 2021

Utrikesminister Pekka Haavistos presskonferens med sina ryska kollega Sergej Lavrov får främst beröm.

I år tar Luftstridsskolan över ansvaret för det svenska bidraget i den EU-ledda utbildningsinsatsen EUTM Mali (European Union Training Mission Mali). […]

Varje styrka som Luftstridsskolan sätter samman består av åtta soldater, officerare och specialistofficerare med olika specialområden. De maliska styrkorna kommer bland annat få utbildningar i grundläggande stridsteknik, vapenhantering och internationell humanitär rätt. […]

Utbildningsinsatsen genomförs av EU på förfrågan från Mali. Målet med insatsen är att bistå Mali genom utbildning och rådgivning av dess väpnade styrkor i syfte att stärka landets förmåga att hantera sina säkerhetsutmaningar. I insatsen deltar cirka 700 personer från 29 nationer. Försvarsmakten påbörjade insatsen första kvartalet 2013. Luftstridsskolan tar över uppgiften som uppsättande förband från Skaraborgs flygflottilj, F 7. Läs pressmeddelande

Till reserven hör cirka 870 000 finländare. Försvarsmaktens krigstida styrka är 280 000 soldater, och styrkan kompletteras vid behov med andra reservister.

Värnplikten i fråga om de män och kvinnor som gjort beväringstjänsten gäller fram till slutet av det år då personen fyller 60 år. Som värnpliktig hör du till reserven tills du fyllt 50 eller 60 år.

Den som hör till manskapet överförs till den ersättande reserven vid utgången av det år då han eller hon fyller 50 år; officerare och underofficerare hör till reserven fram till utgången av det år då de fyller 60 år. […]

Efter beväringstjänsten blir du reservist och placeras i en trupp med tanke på undantagsförhållanden.

Din krigstida placering administreras i värnpliktsregistret. Dina kontakt- och yrkesuppgifter i registret kommer från befolkningsdatasystemet hos Myndigheten för digitalisering och befolkningsdata. I övrigt uppdateras dina uppgifter endast om du själv meddelar dem till regionalbyrån eller i samband med repetitionsövningar. […]

Uppdatera dina uppgifter! Försvarsmakten behöver kunniga personer, från bilmålare till anestesiläkare. På så sätt kan du få en ny krigstida placering och krigstida lämplighet.  Läs dokumentet

It is finally by video-conference, in the name of respect for health rules, that Emmanuel Macron will participate in the G5 Sahel summit which opens this Monday in Chad. An eagerly awaited event, both the President of the Republic and the Ministers of the Armed Forces and of Foreign Affairs have given the prospect of important announcements in recent weeks, of a reduction in the French system to a withdrawal schedule, after eight years of a conflict which turned into a veritable quagmire. As in Afghanistan where international troops, led by the United States, are preparing, twenty years later, to return the keys of the country to the Taliban, whom they claimed to be driving out of power, the security situation continues to deteriorate. , despite the triumphant communiques of the French army.[…]

According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2020 was the deadliest year in terms of violence committed by extremist militants in the Sahel, with around 4,250 deaths, a 60% increase over 2019. And 2021 does not look much better, as illustrated by the attack on a Malian army post blamed on jihadists on February 3, killing ten soldiers and causing significant material damage.

Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, the insurgents are patiently betting on the lack of motivation of local armies as underpaid as they are under-equipped and on the weariness of Western public opinion in the face of the return of soldiers in coffins – 55 for France since 2013 -, like the meager political, security and social gains obtained. “It is the Afghan syndrome where we explained that, with the military and money to help a poor country to develop, we were going to get there”,notes the ex-diplomat Laurent Bigot (read opposite). Läs artikel

When Martin Luther King preached his famous sermon “Beyond Vietnam” at Riverside Church in New York City in April 1967, I don’t recall giving his words a second thought. Although at the time I was just up the Hudson River attending West Point, his call for a “radical revolution in values” did not resonate with me. By upbringing and given my status as a soldier-in-the-making, radical revolutions were not my thing. To grasp the profound significance of the “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism” to which he called his listeners’ attention was beyond my intellectual capacity. I didn’t even try to unpack their meaning.

In that regard, the ensuing decades have filled a void in my education. I long ago concluded that Dr. King was then offering the essential interpretive key to understanding our contemporary American dilemma. The predicament in which we find ourselves today stems from our reluctance to admit to the crippling interaction among the components of the giant triplets he described in that speech. True, racism, extreme materialism, and militarism each deserve — and separately sometimes receive — condemnation. But it’s the way that the three of them sustain one another that accounts for our nation’s present parlous condition. Läs artikel

Läs även Martin Luthers tal 1967 i Riverside Church som vi tidigare länkat till på den här sajten.

Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago John Mearsheimer has expressed fears that the Cold War between China and the US would have consequences for the smaller countries that can be turned into proxies for the two bigger powers of the world. […]

Talking about the role of South Asia in the cold war, Mr Mearsheimer said, “I think there is a likelihood that Pakistan would side with China and the US would try to peel off Pakistan from China in the emerging Cold War. The Indians would ally with the US. The Americans would try to get Myanmar in its fold”. Läs artikel

Amr Moussa, the former Secretary General of the Arab League, said that Libya has been suffering from major problems. However, he expressed his hope for the country now that Libya has begun taking steps in the right direction, after the election of the new executive authority.

During an interview with Russia Today on Saturday, Moussa added that the Arab League intervened in the Libyan crisis in 2011 when the situation began to affect civilians. In response to the interviewer’s question regarding the Arab League’s permission for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to bomb Libya in 2011, Moussa stated that the League “did not allow, speak with NATO, or request its entry into Libyan territories.”

“Repeating ill-considered speech from uncontrolled circles is not in the public interest,” he further told the interviewer.

He pointed out that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and then the Islamic Conference convened and called on the United Nations (UN) to prevent military flights over Libya, before the Arab League meeting in 2011. Moussa stated that the Arab League asked the UN to work to protect civilians by imposing an air embargo on military aircrafts flying over Libya. He indicated that the Arab League’s Secretary-General objected to the UN Security Council’s decision to intervene militarily in Libya. Läs artikel

Kommentar: I boken Lagen mot krig beskrivs Arabförbundets ställningstagande till interventionen i Libyen:

”Arabförbundet gjorde ett uttalande till stöd för resolutionen, men det modifierades snabbt av förbundets ordförande, som uttalade att man inte stödde det ”omfattande bombkrig som nu pågår”. Asia Times uppgav att Arabförbundet fattade sitt beslut när bara 11 av de 22 medlemmarna var närvarande (därav sex Gulfstater som är helt beroende av USA). Läs  kapitlet om Libyenkriget i boken sid 113 -121

[…] Diskussionen om hur Sverige förhöll sig under kalla kriget behöver fortsätta, men skulle alltså må bra av en grundläggande analys som inte utgår från att regering och försvarsmakt är enhetliga bowlingklot som knuffar på varandra, utan snarare amorfa tingestar med många beståndsdelar som samverkar eller motverkar varandra. Och att det sker i kraftfält där utländska stormakter har ett väsentligt intresse av att påverka.   

Kanske var det snarare en sådan tanke än någon ”dold allians” som låg bakom USA:s hemliga policydokument 1962, numera offentligt: ”In the event of general war the Swedish Government´s position cannot be predetermined; if Sweden does not become a co-belligerent with NATO it is important that it remain a friendly neutral.” Läs artikel

People in the Netherlands and five other NATO states overwhelmingly reject the presence of US nuclear weapons and support the Treaty to Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In fact, according to polls, support for the Dutch joining the nuclear ban continues to increase.

In the new YouGov poll released today, the results are clear: 78% of Dutch people want the government to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In fact, 68% said the Netherlands should be among the first members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to join, even if the country were pressured by the United States of America not to do so.

A similar poll was conducted in 2019, at which time only 62% of people wanted the Dutch government to join the ban. These new numbers reflect a growing understanding that there are no safe hands for the world’s worst weapons. […]

Similar surveys were conducted in Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Italy and Spain that showed support near or over 80% for the ban treaty. NATO has a stated commitment to support nuclear disarmament and democracy, but has opposed the TPNW at each step, against the will of its member populations. Läs artikel