norway-sweden-increase-defence

Oh so Norway and Sweden after years of not paying their fair share in Nato, of spending money on welfare and not on defense have realized that they can't leach off of someone else [aka military welfare], that they have to pull their weight oh good! About time.

I'm not that concerned about Russia, though I don't necessarily trust any country. Russia's issues have been the encirclement of forces by previous UK/US regimes, they're rather annoyed at that, understandably so. I suspect a good negotiation and change of posture would change all of that and ally them far more strongly than has been seen before, probably more than the difficult alliance they had during WW2. The reason for this is the similarity in cultures and the common concern that Russia has, we're already seeing this in Syria, at least the first stages. Heck it would be amazing if they were in Nato, and I'd love to see Turkey gone, it's a dictatorship. They're also not a big fan of China, though have tentatively sided that way due to needing some level of balance. I suspect such negotiations would open up trade also, helping all economies greatly.

I'm much more concerned about the war currently being fought and ignored by many, the invasion of a culture and religious subjection that when the numbers are right will absolutely go to war within as they have done in 60 countries in the world to date. The evidence is history and it's compelling. I do wish Australia upped it's armed forces, or at least in terms of reserves or heck, do a civil defense/home guard type program, train willing citizens in disaster relief, basic radio operation, using firearms... aka prepping. Would only cost a few million per year and they'd of course be under the leadership of SES/Military in times of needs. The Swiss in effect thinks this way, they have no issues with self defense.