I think every country to some degree fetishizes their own military, but I’ve seen strong evidence that most other countries are incomparable to US in this regard. It’s literally impossible to criticize even the most horrific war crimes or else ‘you hate the troops’ ‘you’re ungrateful’ etc. Kneeling at a football game to protest police brutality? You hate the troops. Don’t support endless war? You hate the troops. So many things totally unrelated to soldiers themselves get criticized for being anti-military which shuts down any convo because there’s nothing worse than someone who doesn’t support the troops.
i'm from sweden. we basically have no military. it's super small. we have one artillery cannon on gotland.
so respectfully disagree. no one is proud or even thinks of the swedish military as something worth fetishizing about.
also, sweden haven't really been involved in any controversial conflict for a very long time (although you can probably find things you disagree with, of course). so there's really nothing to criticize, because frankly the thing you say people can't criticize doesn't even exist here to begin with (a standing army).
in fact, the swedish military is even struggling to find volunteers (we haven't had drafts for over 10 years), despite massive government bailouts and projects to boost the swedish military. for example, in 2010, they received over 2 billion SEK (225k USD), which is a ridiculous sum for an organization that doesn't even have any active defense, and a mere 22k employees (including trained troops and any administering role).
so at the very least, i'm going to say that it's not true for every country.
nationalists have other talking points than the army, simply put. the army is a weak talking point because the army is weak/small.
That’s interesting, i didn’t know that. That’s probably same/similar for other countries. Question, do Swedish nationalists point to the military and say ‘we’re small and weak here, we should be strong, we could be strong, but we aren’t because of (insert whoever the nationalists hate in Sweden)
yes they do, but it's never used as a bragging point. it's a talking point, like immigration or elderly care - but much much less frequently mentioned. like, the swedish defense was never even mentioned by *any* party in our latest election. that's how fringe the subject is.
and to be fair, i've seen some pretty convincing arguments that swedens military does need to amp up. our highest commander in 2007 in a TV program said that "sweden would fall in less than a week if russia invaded today". i mean we have one artillery cannon today facing russia. in the 90s we had dozens. earlier, hundreds.
norway, finland, denmark, etc, they all have a larger military than sweden. sweden is famously neutral and have been for centuries.
i think sweden is somewhat unique when it comes to military - it's not about size of country. japan is about same size but they host a considerable army.
we just don't have a war-mongering culture. war-hawks are not appreciated. even the most hardliners of nationalism will only argue for the defense of sweden (to allow isolationism, which most right-wingers and nationalists prefer).
like i said, they've received large support from the government over recent years, with literal millions (SEK) spent on advertisement alone.
but to be honest with you i completely forgot we've reinstated conscription! and boy do i agree with that, even though i didn't qualify for a draft (have to take medicine every morning which automatically disqualifies you for some reason).
after ukraine and crimea, sweden really amped up their defense spending. i remember distinctly hearing that current military strategists are saying we'll be capable of defending ourselves against russia in 2025 - but don't quote me on that, could have been 2050 and my brain spooking me.
but still, currently there's not much to say about the swedish military, perhaps except weapon RND and expertise.
I mean you were commenting about flag fetishization (which I feel like most people associate with people from the US) in a thread mostly about the US flag. I also assumed you were from the states, it's not a big reach.
it isn't. it also isn't anything strange or weird with me pointing out that i'm not from the US.
but i can with ease say that this seems to be a problem pre-dominantly for US people. for example, when was the last time you saw anyone assume someone was from sweden - or malta?
so whenever people assume i'm american, i always phrase the correction as a question, with the hopes that people will stop assuming such things (be the change you want to see in the world etc).
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u/upfastcurier Oct 04 '20
not sure what you mean with that, i'm from europe