...that my interests as a Norwegian citizen is better served if Norway is denied a seat in the UN Security Council this next term. 100 years ago Norwegian citizens were better represented thru' the Swedish Embassys, simply because the Swedes had an actual interest in preserving the Norwegian-Swedish Union. In 1905, Norway broke away from the Union by taking advantage of the Swedish King's failure to comply to the Norwegian Constitution when he refused to accept the Norwegian Governmemt's Resignation of Office. The Swedes did voice war threats, but they got their act together, and since then we have lived in peace. In in April/May 1945 they had 105 Army divisions and a fresh Airforce ready to help us throw out the bad guys. They wisened up.
..in 1972 and 1994 the Norwegian People turned down two offers on joining the European Union, preferring the full Independence route. We did this against the advice, or strong pressure from "our own" politicians and diplomats, who spoke of how big and bad things would be for itzy bitty little Norway and that we would "have to face the world all by ourselves". Don't everyone? Anyway, succeeding in International Trade, takes a certain minimum amount of trying. Without that minimum of trying, failure is guaranteed.
..Norwegian Hans Christian Osterø toured India a few years back. Near the Kashmir region, he and 4 other people was kidnapped. One managed to ecape, 3 was eventually released, and, well, the Norwegian Dept. of State insisted Norway is such a small country, so the locals first found his body and then his head.
..In 1949 came the time to return the favor to the Swedes, when RNoN Commander Alf Martens-Meyer organized several clandestine services, such as the merchant fleet-based organization that gathered and processed major part of US intelligence during the Vietnam War, and the infiltration of "a few Turkish" underground organizations, and the 3 Services known in Norw. Media as "Stay Behind" or "Okkupasjonsberedskapsstyrken", that in the event of a Soviet Invasion and Occupation, would 1. Collect Intelligence, 2. Contain and Combat the Enemy, hereunder Arrest and Intern Communists and other potential 5'th Column Forces, carry out Sabotage on Targets of Value to the Enemy, (hereunder set up Decoy Targets and Cover-Up Operations,) and Liquidate 5'th Column or Enemy Personell that cannot safely be interned or combatted otherwise etc, and finally, 3. Evaquate Military (f.ex. downed pilots), Government, Parliament and Bureaucracy VIP's and their families, and, of cource, the Royal families, out of both Norway and Sweden across the Atlantic... ;-7 Now, Alf didn't do it all by himself, he actually did get some help from a certain small country. Details in Christian Christensen: "Vår hemmelige beredskap, Historien om MM" = ["Our secret Readyness, the history of MM"], Cappelen Forlag A/S, Oslo 1988.
I studied aerospace engineering in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 1983 thru' 1987, one major amusement was watching Olof Palme terrorizing his debate opponents in TV-shows. Now, I don't give much for his domestic politics, however Olof earned his controversial reputation rightfully thru' his great style, about every third Swede I discussed politics with, told me he would/should shoot Palme. The other two thirds were the females and the social-democrats ;-) . Unfortunately, Olof Palme was shot dead, and, no, I do not believe a Swede shot him. His "Alliance-Free-Alliance" foreign politics apperared to me to pave too much of an alternative to the EU route, inline with what the Swedes considered common decency and neutrality, and with good backup from India, Austria and several more, easily outweighing both Nato and the Warsaw-pact. The Swedes had it both ways!, thru' the Okkupasjonsberedskapsstyrken and thru their official politics. This Latter route could have made the referendum in Austria and Sweden, possibly also Finland, really exciting, but boringly safe in Norway ;-), as in "what's in it for us?"
..during the last Norwegian "join EU" campaign I took the liberty of asking people in both parties on what side Olof Palme would have been on, had he been alive. Some of the floor level Join-EU volonteers claimed Olof Palme would have supported joining the EU, because of his wiews on sustainable development. Higher up, nobody! would comment on the issue. On the other side, the EU resistance, happily (and with fat grins) agreed Olof Palme's opinions (and his stylish way of expressing them) would indeed have been a very interesting addition to the debate...
..instead of trying, "our own" politicians and diplomats are dragging us backwards into the EU thru the "European Economic Area" by undermining everything not "EUropean", thru ridiculously high taxes and fees for embarrassingly poor public services and overly complex bureaucractic procedures for whatever purpose. Still, ditching Norway is hard, they have had problems dumping the money into European Industry quick enough to keep up with the cashflow. And, in the EU, both politicians and bureaucrats are by far better paid and can easily enforce secrecy on how they spend public funds etc. The EEA was made known to the public by French President Mitterand and Norwegian Premier Mrs G.H. Brundtland about a year after Olof Palme was shot dead.
..for the men working in the clandestine services, there is a thin line between "not knowing enough" and "knowing too much", the latter endangers the service and its members while the former endangers the expendable individual; the way I would do it, is I would tell the first guy a believeable story on the lines that "our man Olof and wife has been shot and replaced by Soviet imposters, two more shots will restore national security, no need to kill the woman but get the man". The next bunch would be diverted from some important operation near Stockholm, learning "our man has cracked and oh God!, you have got to get there and clean up this mess, national security" etc. The 3'rd group would be briefed to annihilate, say, an east german team of analysts speaking near perfect scandinavian. Repeating this last manouver a few times, wipes clean most tracks. In Stockholm we of course "help" out chasing the 'crackpot', allowing nosy people to drive their noses deep into, say, Kurd dirt in full media coverage, before they are allowed to retire to become novelists etc... The scary part is most people I know, I believe would stand by their country cleaning up such a mess, when asked to help defend Peace, Justice and Country. Makes it all too doable for my taste...
..Why Olof? Why not Slobo and Saddam? Or am I supposed to believe these two are our guys?