Friday, April 29, 2016

Putting Out the Unwelcome Mat

Gotland Island is important real estate in the Baltic Sea that Sweden is responsible for holding. Sweden is taking a small step toward being able to defend the island.

You will recall Gotland Island.

Sweden is taking a baby step to holding it:

Gotland is the largest (at 3,200 square kilometers) of many Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. It had long been a key military target for any invaders, be they from Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is gone but Russia has again become a threat once more and parliament authorized a Gotland defense force consisting of a 168 man infantry company and a 70 man tank company. The infantry would be full time soldiers while the tank company would be manned by reservists (part time soldiers.)

During the Cold War, 4,000 reservists on the island could be called up. Why can't that be replicated now?

I honestly assume that American Marines will be called on to retake the island from the Russians because there is no way that token Swedish force could stop a Russian invasion.