The Armed Forces: Will fight “to the end”

Published 28 July 2024 at 15.07

Domestic. After joining NATO, the Swedish Armed Forces have modernized their message and now promise to fight for homosexuality, the US and NATO “to the end”. Today, the agency is launching a misspelled ad campaign in Svenska Dagbladet – which is drawing criticism.

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The armed forces have released a new ad in Svenska Dagbladet where the agency focuses on its role in promoting homosexuality and being loyal to the US and NATO.

“We will fight to the end. We are proud to defend Sweden, our allies and our right to identify ourselves exactly as we want”, it says in a large advertisement that adorns the left-wing newspaper's front page today.

During Micael Bydén's time as commander-in-chief, the agency has devoted extensive resources to campaigning for homosexuality alongside its mission to defend Sweden, which this year was extended to also defend US interests through the DCA agreement and NATO membership.

Outside the mission
On the other hand, it is not part of the mission to conduct political campaigns on domestic issues such as homosexuality and the like.

“The main task of the armed forces is to defend Sweden and allied states against an armed attack” is stated in the government regulation with instructions on what the Armed Forces must deal with.

However, the regulation does not mention homosexuality or any other type of political correctness at all, except that the authority must strive for equality between women and men. This means that the Armed Forces violates the law if it uses the Riksdag's appropriations to “defend our right to identify ourselves exactly as we want” instead of military defense.

One of those who question that the authority spends the granted appropriations on political opinion formation is the liberal Riksdag member Stefan Olsson (M).

“Does it say in the Swedish Armed Forces' regulatory letter that the authority must conduct gender-denying campaigns? I actually don't think so,” he writes on X.

Wants to “show”
The authority has in a separate press release defended the ad campaign by referring to various – by now quite worn out – PK platitudes.

– The armed forces have long worked to promote diversity and inclusion. This campaign is a further step in showing how important it is to remind everyone of their equal value. We believe that diversity strengthens our defense and makes us better equipped to face the future, says Johan Landeström, marketing manager at the Swedish Armed Forces, in the press release.

Why the Swedish Armed Forces should fight to the “last” and not a gender-neutral last is not clear from the press release. Fria Tider has searched for Landeström to ask if it is really the case that no one at the Armed Forces or the PR agency they hired knew that “siste” precedes a masculine noun, but to no avail.

According to the authority, Landeström is back first on Monday.