They will not succeed!
You all know what happened ten years ago. Four jets were hijacked and two of them flew into the World Trade Center, a symbol of America and free trade between people of decency and good will.
You also know this lead to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—as well as a lot more terrorism.
This, I submit, is both true and untrue. 9/11 had to be countered, of course. A superpower like the U.S. can not take a hit of that magnitude without responding, that would have been a confession of terrible weakness and lack of will. So, war and retaliation there was.
But we also have to remember the deeper underlying causes. The reason 9/11 happened was the realization among some Muslims that the new world is pressing on with freedom of expression, modern means of communication and—don’t ever forget it—democracy.
The fanatical (yes, I use that word) Islamists hate Democracy. The priests don't discuss, they decide. They don't want free citizens around them, they want subjects. And the “ordinary” persons' duty is to obey.
All this has been under attack, a silent but relentless attack for centuries. During the 1990s and leading up to 9/11 the reactionaries in the Islamic world had enough of it. They decided to make war, to post a truly gigantic statement saying that the war is not over, that “the West” has not won. If they could put enough scare into the Americans and—with the help of pictures of the towers falling—if they could convey to believers that the decadent West was falling, Islam would regain a good deal of its power. Maybe, who knows, it woud spread? Maybe the West would chicken out and give in to various demands.
As we know, it didn't happen. America went to war, not very wisely and not without committing errors of all kinds. Well, not perfect (since there is no perfect war) but with enough force and enough understanding to show that even if 9/11 took about 3,000 lives—innocent people, including Muslims—it didn't make a dent in the superiority of the free people of the world and our nations. Islam is basically a conservative, not to say reactionary creed. It wants to turn back the clock and give more power to the king and his princes in Saudi Arabia, madmen like the very religious murderer Khadaffi, the likewise pious Bashir Assad in Damascus, etc.
They will not succeed. The attack on the WTC might have been the most spectacular terrorist deed in modern times. It took, as I have written, many lives and destroyed a few buildings. But without being cynical, I can say that we could take that. All civilized countries on the globe went to the aid of the U.S. Free men and women everywhere condemned the hijackers and their leader from behind, Osama bin Laden, himself deposed recently.
In other words: We won, we who think conflicts should be resolved with words, not explosions and murder, we who think religion should be private and we who believe in freedom of choice. America took a terrible blow, but look at it now—more than ever the leading nation in the world. Look at the same time at the Middle East.
I need to say no more. Chaos and bloodshed everywhere and no end in sight.…
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World Reporter
Ulf Nilson, World reporter since his first assignments to Hungary in 1956. Correspondent and Sweden’s man in America for 20 years, Ulf Nilson is still a regular columnist in Sweden’s daily Expressen, and regular contributor in Nordstjernan. He has authored or co-authored over fifty books. He lives in southern France or at his beloved Värmdö, just 30 minutes north of Stockholm. He
• covered the US, including Vietnam during the war years
• marched in the civil rights marches
• interviewed Martin Luther King
• met presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush
• and, as one of Sweden’s most well-known journalists, also met with every politician, industry leader or cultural personality—all the movers and shakers of Sweden through five decades of a proliferate professional life.
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