Fredrik Posted May 6, 2003 I just heard some not so sad news - I were today found unable to serve military duty. Apparently my BMI (body mass index) is one tenth under the level from where they let you skip without further questions. Even if you disliked my attitude, you can't deny my contributions to the anti-war community. Truly a Swedish icon. In other words, I'm writing this from a regiment central three hours of a bus ride from home. I only had to do one test :) 0 Share this post Link to post
AndrewB Posted May 6, 2003 You live in the 2nd best country in the world, I live in the 3rd best. Is there a Norwegian around here? I didn't know that one could be so lucky in that way. I think that I might also be underqualified for military duty in the same way, if I didn't live in such a safe place... 0 Share this post Link to post
Fredrik Posted May 6, 2003 I quite frankly don't understand why even applying is obligatory, much less serving the duty if you're told to. Sweden has some peace-preserving troops out in the world but we're hardly facing any threat. The system is obviously antiquated, as an example of this: the interpreter education is primarily targeted for Russian, a legacy of the cold war when we feared an invasion from Soviet. Now it's just a lossy affair. I mean, they take in less than two fifths (going down!) of the batch each year after the medical and mental examinations, and I'm confident that there are more than two fifths who'd volunteer even if they didn't have to (there were in my group). Several hours in a bus back and forth, plus staying overnight getting three hours of sleep, was a waste of time for me :P 0 Share this post Link to post
Sharessa Posted May 6, 2003 Wow. Between me being too fat to join the Navy and Fredrik being too thin to join the Army...well I don't know what. 0 Share this post Link to post
Grazza Posted May 6, 2003 AndrewB said:You live in the 2nd best country in the worldWhat? How can it be the 2nd best country in the world if there is (almost) compulsory military service? 0 Share this post Link to post
Jonathan Posted May 6, 2003 A week or so ago I went to a death metal concert with a friend of mine from uni (not my choice of music but he is mad about it). The opening band was a Swedish metal band called Arise and the lead singer looked frightening similar to Fredrik. It wasn't you was it Fred? 0 Share this post Link to post
Lord FlatHead Posted May 6, 2003 Jonathan said:It wasn't you was it Fred? Also, didn't you fight the Great Old One in Call of Cthulhu ? Anyway, congrats. 0 Share this post Link to post
Little Faith Posted May 6, 2003 Abolish conscription! Now! It is a blemish on the proud scandinavian nations! The idea of a national defense is especially retarded in Denmark since the landscape make Denmark almost completely undefendable against invasion from a larger agressor (and since Denmark is so much smaller than any neighbour chances are that any attacker WILL be much larger. In Sweden and Norway you are able to fight a mean guerrilla war, but in Denmark the only thing you can really do is to blow up our pretty bridges and spam all the straits with mines. Oh yeah, and any air force will waltz through. It's a matter of defense that danish politicians have grown into the diplomats they are today. 0 Share this post Link to post
Disorder Posted May 6, 2003 If a country wanted to destroy the Netherlands it could easily do that by simply destroying the large dikes. Without those, a great part of the Netherlands would've been a huge swimmingpool. 0 Share this post Link to post
Sharessa Posted May 6, 2003 Yeah. YOu can't live without them lesbians. ;) 0 Share this post Link to post
Disorder Posted May 6, 2003 the_Danarchist said:Yeah. YOu can't live without them lesbians. ;) Heh ORFL 0 Share this post Link to post
dsm Posted May 7, 2003 Fredrik said:I quite frankly don't understand why even applying is obligatory, much less serving the duty if you're told to. Sweden has some peace-preserving troops out in the world but we're hardly facing any threat. The system is obviously antiquated, as an example of this: the interpreter education is primarily targeted for Russian, a legacy of the cold war when we feared an invasion from Soviet. Situations might change - history has proven that several times. Denmark was occupied by Germany during WW2 as was Sweden and Norway. And just because we're in a big great alliance now doesn't exclude the possibility that we might end up being attacked one day. And remember, it has been common in history for friends to become enemies and enemies to become friends. Ex: Denmark and Sweden used to be fierce enemies, now we're pretty much 'buddies' (although there are dumbfucks in both countries that think people in the other country suck). And yes, mandatory service is ridiculous, but they say it's "useful to find out who is best suited for the professional army". So according to those pro-conscription nuts, mandatory service prevents that unsuited people sign a contract to serve in the prof army, because they get a chance to try out this army bullshit for a set amount of time during their mandatory service period and decide if they like it or not. I know I hated it. What I think is truly ridiculous is that the mandatory service period has to last so long. Three months would be more than sufficient, Hell, I figured out that I hated army service after a meagre week. 0 Share this post Link to post
Fredrik Posted May 7, 2003 Sweden was never occupied by Germany during WW2. 0 Share this post Link to post