 |
Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo! |
Posted on 12/04/2002 10:55:37 PM PST by petuniasevan
|
|
|
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The image of the United States is slipping worldwide, especially in Middle Eastern countries with large Muslim populations, just as this country is trying to rally the world against terrorism and gather allies for possible military action against Iraq.
|
In a broad international survey released Wednesday, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found the United States is falling out of favor in 19 of 27 countries where a trend could be identified.
The dislike was especially striking in Muslim countries. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed in Jordan had an unfavorable opinion of America, as did 69 percent of Egyptians and Pakistanis and 59 percent of Lebanese. In Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Senegal, Turkey and Lebanon, the vast majority said they oppose the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
But the popularity of the United States was also slipping in supposedly friendly nations like Canada, Britain and Germany.
"The biggest headline is the slipping image of the United States, not simply that we're not liked in the Muslim world," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. "But there is still a great reserve of good will toward the United States."
The surveys in 44 countries were conducted by established survey organizations in each country between July and October, with polls done by phone in eight of the most developed countries and face-to-face in the others. The error margins ranged from plus or minus 2 percentage points to 4.5 points, depending on the sample size.
A generally favorable view of America is held in 35 of the 42 countries that took part in the survey. Among Russians, U.S. popularity has surged 24 points, from 37 percent two years ago to 61 percent today. Similarly, 77 percent of Nigerians and 85 percent of Uzbeks had pro-U.S. views, up 31 percent and 29 percent respectively.
The most common criticisms of the United States are that it acts by itself, it pushes policies that widen the gap between rich and poor nations, and it doesn't do enough to solve the world's problems.
Americans don't necessarily agree. Seventy-five percent of Americans polled said U.S. foreign policy is considerate of others.
Next door, only 25 percent of Canadians said America is a considerate world citizen.
Citizens internationally said they admire U.S. technology and culture, but not the spread of American ideas and customs.
U.S. officials have tried to improve America's image abroad. The White House established an office of "global communications" to provide in-depth explanations of President Bush (news - web sites)'s foreign policy.
Madeleine Albright (news - web sites), secretary of state during the Clinton administration, said the results may stem from the fact that the United States is the world's only superpower.
"In many ways, we are viewed as the rich guy living on the hill," said Albright, chair of the Pew global survey. "We have seen this coming since the end of the Cold War."
Most people surveyed said they don't want the world to have more than one superpower. Even in Russia, 53 percent said they believe the world is safer with just one.
In Turkey, which is being actively courted for help in a possible war against Iraq, pro-American views dropped from 52 percent to 30 percent.
"In Turkey, you have such a complete difference in where the people are and where we are asking the leadership to go," Albright said, questioning the long-range policies of such an approach.
Large percentages of Muslim respondents in several countries said they believe suicide bomb attacks are a justifiable defense of Islam. This was especially so in Lebanon, where 73 percent supported this belief.
Albright said the survey offers a glimpse of a developing trend and offered a suggestion for making Americans more secure abroad.
"The only way to protect our national interest," she said, "is to understand the national interests of the other countries."
And guess what, lefties and Euroweenies? This isn't a popularity contest. It's SURVIVAL.
There's more to it than that. There was a National Geographic survey posted here a few weeks ago that indicated that fewer than 1 in 5 Americans surveyed could locate Afghanistan on a map (the same as could identify Israel). Certainly learning a little world geography can't hurt, but think about it. We just fought a war in Afghanistan and an overwhelming majority of Americans have no idea where it is. That's sad.
And we should be conerned about this? I hate their f/king guts as well, so let's roll!
 |
People are either looters or producers. It sounds like the looters are restless.
The looters always detest the productive.
If only that they would shun our handouts... sigh!
They take our "assistance" spend it on their cronies in power and then demonize Americans to keep their populace enraged.
Our wealth stems from our freedom. Freedom from an authoritarian government that assumes that they own the wealth produced by their citizens.
This article is leftist propaganda. The article isn't about working together either. It's about failing to conform to authoritarian socialist wordviews and implementing their policies. The authors and the Pew idiots are leftists with an agenda to eliminate Freedom. They're not interested in working together, they're intrests are in running the show. They're adolescent idiots playing SIM world.
""Large percentages of Muslim respondents in several countries said they believe suicide bomb attacks are a justifiable defense of Islam. This was especially so in Lebanon, where 73 percent supported this belief."
Yes, people kill people and these are the folks the leftists are trying to protect from the mean old Bush cowboys.
Rather than give food, I'd rather see micro loans made available to those wishing to purchase land for production of food or to start any type of business that produces something of value. An enterprising man could get a micro loan to set up small power plants i.e. Solar, methane, hydropower. They could also use loans to drill wells, build catch basins for water storage. You may say "But clean water is a right!" I would answer "Your water is free?"
One caveat is that if what one produces is not his own, small economies will never start. Why take the risk if looters or the government have rights to seize any portion of what you produce?
The authoritarian governments must go before any improvement will occur in peoples lives.
There is only one planet and from what I see, none of us are going anywhere anytime soon. We're trapped here together with all our differences and similarities. Its gonna be one long, painful trip if we do not start working together
When I hear people say that conservatives are not compassionate, what comes to mind is that conservatives will teach a child to walk and to provide for itself. While liberals will carry a child refusing to let the child learn to walk because 1) they would no longer be needed 2) they feel they are being compassionate.
Ask yourself which is truly compassionate.
If we gave each person that was hungry food equal to 1500 calories a day, it would increase their health, their stamina, their drive. It would also be a bottomless pit as more and more mouths would appear to feed. All hooked on taking from the productive to create more unproductive. This may attitude may appear on the surface to be heartless and cruel, but it is fact. Not to mention governments around the world would fight you tooth and nail so that they had control of the food.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
