She asked me to stay
And she told me to sit anywhere
So I looked around
And I noticed there wasn’t a chair
The head of the Norwegian military is either the king or a guy called the “Chief of Defense.” But that is of course code for war-making. You can go to any country on Earth that hasn’t restored the old title of “War Department” and ask any top “defense” officials you like, and they will not admit to (and probably not have) the slightest knowledge of unarmed civilian defense.
Here’s a page and the front-page of a leading Norwegian newspaper on February 10, 2026:
Here is it in English:
Here, in English, is the letter that Susanne Urban gave to the war chief:
What a wonderful action, and documentation thereof!
Of course, the trouble is that if a military dedicated to weapons sales and use subsumes under its umbrella the direction of civilians, as subordinates to the military, you’re guaranteed not to end up with an effective unarmed defense being created or used.
In the end, militarism has to be replaced with unarmed defense, along with diplomacy, the rule of law, cooperation, etc. But there may be many paths to get there.
One Response
Like all Nato-countries, Norway i preparing for war. To make the brad public aware of the existence of effective and nonviolent alternatives to ever more violence, actions giving media coverage are a good thing. But for sure we have to work on strategies for how to complement grassroots-information-work with also making politicians and institutional leaders responsible for establishing widespread training in unarmed civilian defense. Another aspect of this action is to train coming out of the comfort zone. And last not least: we have to find many ways to get media interested in peacework.