9/11:The Swedish Debate :: Politics Political Persuasive Essays

9/11: The Swedish Debate The attack on September 11 has affected countries all over the world. This was the case in Sweden where the events of 9/11 definitely had an impact. Naturally, the immediate reaction was shock at how someone could plan something so terrible and kill so many innocent people. However, a small group of authors and journalists made some statements saying that the United States "deserved" what happened. Obviously, these statements made a lot of people, including myself, very upset. These controversial statements led to a very intense debate in Sweden regarding Western countries, especially the United States, policies in the Middle East. The terrorist attack on September 11 opened the eyes of many people to what is going on in different parts of the world. People wanted to know how someone could hate a nation and a people that stands for freedom and democracy so much that they were willing to take their own lives in order to kill innocent people. To begin with, the discussion in Sweden was focused on these questions. However, the discussion took a different turn when some people, led by the Swedish author and politician Jan Guillo, begun to say that the United States had this coming because of the way they conduct their Middle East politics. Jan Guillo appeared in all major Swedish newspapers and TV stations saying that what happen was a terrible tragedy but the United States should have expected that something could happen. The United States should not have expected to go unpunished for the way they treat the Middle East and the Muslim states (Dagens Nyheter). Jan Guillo has a Socialist and anti-Capitalist bac kground and he believes that the Western countries, including Sweden, back the United States only because they want to please the greatest Capitalist country in the world. He argues that the Western countries would not have reacted in the same way if five thousand people in Baghdad were to be killed in a similar attack. People in the Western world would not have cared if five thousand Iraqis were killed, simply because they feel dependent on the United States and have less concern for poor countries where the religion is considered fundamentalist and extremist. Everyone wants to be on the United State’s good side, according to Guillo (Dagens Nyheter).