Posted on 06/14/2008 4:49:30 AM PDT by Clive
In Saudi Arabia, the government refused to allow the question to be asked at all.
Pro-American feeling does not necessarily translate into pro-American action.
People across Western Europe mourned the 9/11 attack. But a Gallup poll conducted the week after 9/11 found that only 29% of the French, 21% of Italians, 18% of the British, 17% of Germans and 12% of Spaniards supported military action against countries that harboured terrorists. Iraq is not the reason that NATO has trouble persuading European governments to send troops to fight in Afghanistan.
Anti-American feeling is often an artefact of propaganda.
Anti-Americanism becomes stronger as the media become less free. Russian anti-Americanism began its measurable rise in the polls in the late 1990s, coinciding with the reassertion of state control over the Russian media and the imposition of a strong nationalist message.
Behind all these particular problems, there is a larger defect, maybe best explained by an analogy.
Suppose we were studying anti-black hatred. Would we begin by trying to figure out what blacks had done to justify hatred -- and then offer suggestions about how they might alter their behaviour so as to give less offense? Yet that is how the conversation about anti-Americanism often proceeds.
Critics of the Bush administration cite various grievances against American policy as the cause of anti-Americanism. But this is a naive understanding of how the human mind works.
An example from U. S. politics may explain. During the prosperous 1990s, Democrats consistently gave a more favourable assessment of the U. S. economy than Republicans. Sometimes the gap spread as wide as 10 percentage points. Partisanship determined perspective, not the other way around.
In the same way, the Islamic world seems to pay attention only to those facts like the Arab-Israeli conflict that inflame their anger, while ignoring facts that might contradict anti-American prejudice, like the use of U. S. military force in the 1990s to defend the Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo.
In the movies, trenchant remarks like these leave Congress buzzing. In real life, they make no impact at all. Lunchtime came, the chairman banged a gavel, and I stepped out of the Rayburn Building to hail a cab.
I'd seen the scene a hundred times in movies and television: the big hearing room on Capitol Hill, the chairman with his gavel, the spectators crowded at the back, the massed cameras and the lonely witness crouched into his microphone, speaking to the U. S. Congress and the world.
Real life is less dramatic. On Wednesday morning, I was the man at the microphone, speaking to a subcommittee of the House committee on foreign affairs. Instead of the thronged audience, there was a visiting group of students, with a sprinkle journalists of protesters mixed in.
The topic of the hearing: a new report commissioned by House Democrats asserting that America's standing in the world had collapsed under President Bush. I was called as a Republican rebuttal witness.
The Democrats' report compiled poll data showing a spike in anti-American feeling around the world since 2002. The numbers are indeed troubling -- and they surely mean something. But what exactly?
I use survey data a lot in my own writing and research. It's a great tool, when handled with care. But used improperly, polls create the appearance of fact without the reality.
Here's what's wrong with the polls' claim that America's standing has plummeted because of George W. Bush and the Iraq war:
The emotion measured by the polls is shallow and shifting.
The more intensely people care about an issue, the more difficult it is to change their minds. A shift of 5 points in public opinion on the abortion issue would be a huge change. Yet according to the annual Pew survey of international opinion, fully one-fifth of the population of Spain switched from a positive to negative view of the United States between spring, 2005, and spring, 2006.
Where anti-Americanism is strong, it predates George Bush and Iraq.
In the first Pew survey, conducted in 1999, Pakistan already ranked as the most anti-American country on Earth.
The Gallup Organization conducted a huge survey of Islamic public opinion between December, 2001, and January, 2002. It found that a majority of those surveyed regarded the United States unfavourably, with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran being the most hostile. Significant numbers in all Islamic countries regarded the 9/11 attacks as justifiable. Barely one-fifth of those surveyed accepted that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Arab men -- two-thirds denied it outright.
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In those countries who in their right mind would tell the truth to a pollster?
If Bush is so unpopular in Europe, how is that Germany, Italy and France, of all places, all now have pro-American leaders? Seems someone is out to deliberately distort the facts.
Frum does point to a inverse correlation between anti-americanism and freedom of the press.
Often?
I'd say it is a fact, 100%.
When I drove a big truck around Washington, D.C., delivering the pizza parts for a major pizza chain ... I was always fascinated at the business, the free enterprize that I drank in with my eyes. Frequently thinking, "What a magnificent country I was blessed to be born in".
And .... I'm sure there were some ... but I never came in contact with any WASP types that owned or franchised these or any of the 7-11 types I'd stop for coffee at 2 or 3 in the morning.
Seems like every third world country is represented all over American free enterprize.
So, to look upon America without the blinders of the morning rush, I gutta' get to work, No, YOU move, moron .. is to see the wonder and the beauty we have been priveleged to have and experience.
And a tragedy to lose sight of, and lose ... because we allow ourselves to be blinded by words that mean nothing.
Our problem around the world is exactly the same as our problem at home: Liberals have an iron grip on the infostructure. From pre-K to elementary to high school to university, they indoctrinate. Once education is done, they continue via the MSM. Theirs is the only message the masses ever hear, and over a period of decades that message sinks in and starts to make sense to the myopic masses.
MM
It seems every country we help turns against us, as do our own citizens.
The dems along with the Drive-by’s push their propaganda and push their propaganda and THEN they take a poll...
No wonder they get their desired results.
Let's call them what they truly are: MARXISTS!!!!M. ( Yes! I am shouting!)
Let's use the words that fit: COMMUNISM! and COMMUNIST! ( Yes! I am shouting!)
And,,,You are completely correct. The Communists have nearly a complete lock on K-12 education. It continues in our colleges and universities, and then the Useful Idiot graduates take their places in the media, every government bureaucracy, our elected legislatures, and all the arts.
Marxism is our nation's **most** serious threat. Schools are their **most** important weapon.
By the way, it irritates me that the "Talking Pumpkin Heads" ( Rush, Hannity, and OReilly) don't use the words that fit ( Marxism and Communism) and only give a passing nod to school issues. I don't think I have ever heard any of the "Three Ichabobs" say, "Remove your child from governemnt school immediately! SHUT THESE INDOCTRINATION CENTERS DOWN!!"
In a war, I thought it was kind of a given that the enemy would regard you unfavorably.
Then it is time to take back the infrastructure!
The Plan: ( Do all simultaneously.)
1) Remove your own child from government school immediately.
2) Encourage neighbors, friends, and relatives to do the same.
3) Join with others to elect representatives with the courage to shut the government schools down. Permanently!
4) Organize private charities that would give private vouchers to children attending private ***conservative** schools. Provide grants to **conservative** teachers willing to set up mini-schools, dame schools, one room school houses, homeschool cooperatives, and tutoring centers. The private charities could certify the schools, teachers, and curriculum, and test the students.
5) Abandon the brick and mortar, Prussian military style school. It is expensive and has many tax, insurance, zoning, and health regulations and issues.
6) With today's technology children can and should learn at their own pace in smaller settings. The education will be more comprehensive and more efficient.
7) The private charities should break the government school monopoly on team sports by organizing sports leagues.
Can it be done? You bet!
There are approximately 50 million K-12 children in the U.S. today. For each to receive a $5,000 scholarship the cost would be $250 Billion a year. 5% of a $5 Trillion dollar endowment would do this. So?...Please consider that Harvard has a 35 Billion endowment. There are universities and colleges across this nation with endowments in the billions and multi-multi million dollar figures. $5 Trillion is merely 15 Harvards.
Surely, if conservatives **wanted** we could provide **every** child who wanted one, a thoroughly **conservative** education. We could shut the government indoctrination camps totally down! ( If we wanted.)
Imagine armies of children entering college campuses fully prepared to defend free markets, the Constitution, and their FAITH! Their Marxist professors would whither before them. Soon these righteous youth would be taking their places in the arts, film, the media, bureaucracies, and government.
We need to start now. If we don't the Tree of Liberty will be watered with blood.
By the way....Forget churches! Ministers are NOT going to step up and do what is right. There are too many government teachers sitting in the pews. Few ministers are going to bite the hand that feeds them.
The only reason it matters is because of our ever-increasing foreign entanglements, which will be the ruin of us if we don't reverse course.
“The topic of the hearing: a new report commissioned by House Democrats asserting that America’s standing in the world had collapsed under President Bush.”
Because George Soros and his minions paid a lot of money to deliberately create that perception.
Rush has warned us about schools constantly. That is the reason my grandkids are in a religous school.
You can blame our own media and anti Military Democrates!
Rush started reporting government school nuttiness within the past year, ( probably in response to ridicule here on Free Republic) and he restricts his reporting only to the “nuttiness” factor. Prior to that it was **rare** for him to mention a school story.
I listen to Rush frequently. I have **never** heard him say: “Remove your kids now!”...or...”Shut the government schools DOWN!”...or...”Our government schools are controlled by Marxists and Communists!”
Never! Have I heard him or the other two Talking Pumpkin Heads ( Hannity and OReilly) say this. What's the problem? Are Three Talking Pumpkin Heads afraid of offending their audience who are addicted to the free babysitting. Are they afraid of offending the 3 million government teachers in this nation?
Besides this, the Talking Pumpkin Heads rarely use the words Marxists or Communists. It is **communism** and **Marxism** that is the enemy here! What is this? Marxism and Communism is the “He Who Must Not be Named”????? What weenies these guys are!!!!
Geeze! If they don't feel brave enough to do this, they could at least take a minute each day to point out that all liberalism stems from these philosophies.
Congratulations! I hope it is a conservative religious school that is well grounded in scripture and not Liberation Theology.
It was Marcuse of all people, who postulated that we live in a phony democracy. We hold elections to fool the people into thinking they have a say in things. The reality is that the elites don't give a hoot and do what they want anyway. We live in a pretend democracy with the masses thinking that their votes count. The illusion is kept humming along by giving us the marginal freedom to shout. Our society is looking more and more like the "Matrix".
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