Embassy Row

View from Sweden

Urban Ahlin, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Swedish Parliament, remembers his last encounter with war protesters.

About 5,000 of them demonstrated outside Parliament in Stockholm to demand that he speak to them about the war in Iraq.

” ’Are you for or against the war?’ they shouted. They wanted a ’yes’ or ’no’ answer,” he said yesterday on a visit to Washington.

He explained that the issue was more complicated and that he would support the war if the United Nations authorized it. The protesters did not like his answer.

“They threw snowballs at me. Hundreds of snowballs,” Mr. Ahlin said.

He recounted the story to illustrate that even he, a liberal Social Democrat, was not a knee-jerk pacifist.

Mr. Ahlin and Johan Pehrson, chairman of the judiciary committee, are leading a delegation of their full committees, with 17 members each, for a weeklong visit with their American counterparts in Congress and the administration.

Mr. Ahlin and his vice chairman, Conservative Party member Gunilla Carlsson, said the purpose of their visit is to demonstrate Sweden’s commitment to the trans-Atlantic alliance and to help bridge misunderstandings between European and American politicians.

“They are not understanding the European point of view,” Mr. Ahlin said. “We’re not pacifists in Europe.”

Mr. Ahlin noted that when he refers to European opposition to the Bush administration, he is not talking about the former communist nations of Eastern Europe, which strongly support U.S. security policies.

Mr. Ahlin and Mrs. Carlsson agreed that one fundamental difference between U.S. and European politicians is the approach to the war on terrorism.

“We didn’t really realize that you are at war,” Mr. Ahlin said. “In Europe, we look at terrorists as criminals. We didn’t realize the magnitude of the problems. We are hunting criminals. You are hunting soldiers.”

Mrs. Carlsson said her party more closely shares the opinions of the Republicans and the Bush administration.

“The administration is determined to do what it has to do. We really respect that,” she said, adding that her party was the only Swedish political party that did not demonstrate against the war in Iraq. “I tend sometimes to be too pro-American.”

Europeans also do not understand the depth of the impact the September 11 terrorists attacks had on Americans, they said.

“American politicians refer to [the attacks] very naturally. In Europe the memory is fading,” Mrs. Carlsson said. “It makes me feel a little sad.”

They emphasized that Swedes are fundamentally pro-American, although many oppose President Bush’s policies.

“This trip is a necessity,” Mr. Ahlin said. “We are strong believers in the trans-Atlantic link. We share many values together.”

When Swedes are asked in public opinion polls about which nations they trust, they name Britain and the United States “far and away,” he said.

Getting Russians out

A top U.S. diplomat yesterday offered Washington’s help in financing the withdrawal of Russian troops from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

“Our main concern is the question of military bases in the territories where they are not welcome,” said B. Lynn Pascoe, deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs.

Mr. Pascoe told reporters in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, that the United States will “provide the necessary financial aid to help the process.”

Russia has promised to remove its two army bases in Georgia within 10 years, but the Georgian government wants them out within two years.

“We are constantly raising … with the Russians the question of their obligations on base withdrawal,” Mr. Pascoe said.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.