Time for a Change in Military Doctrine

So we've had a trade minister who doesn’t believe in paying taxes, a culture minister who doesn't believe in paying for TV and now a defence minister who doesn't believe in carrying arms!!

Seriously though, the thing about having a military is you need to know what its purpose is and then equip it for that purpose. Sweden's military is not going to stop a foreign invasion (from where I don't know, Russia?) and it's not going to fight an invasion (even as part of a coalition) since I don't believe there would ever be the political will to do so. That leaves patrolling the air and sea borders, peace keeping and counter terrorism. Patrolling the air and sea borders needs highly mobile well armed planes and boats (not mine layers), for peace keeping you need light armoured companies and for counter terrorism you need Special Forces units.

I think Sweden needs to define what the reason for the military is and then direct the spending accordingly, so that it can function efficiently within these defined rolls. Reinfeldt has got it right on this one. You can't keep pretending the world is that same as it was during the Second World War and the Cold War.