Posted on 01/16/2006 1:26:24 PM PST by Hal1950
Karen Hughes, President Bush’s newest undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and the caretaker of America’s image abroad, has her work cut out for her.
A Zogby survey of 3,900 Arabs in Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates has uncovered massive distrust of U.S. motives in the Middle East.
Unkindest cut of all, Arabs would prefer that President Chirac and France lead the world rather than us, and, rather than have us as the world’s lone superpower, they would prefer the Chinese.
While Arabs are not as rabidly anti-American as in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, still, by 77 percent to 6 percent, they believe the Iraqi people are worse off today, and by four-to-one, Arabs say the U.S. invasion has increased, not decreased, terrorism.
Designed by Arab scholar Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution, the survey reveals pervasive cynicism about the stated goals of George W. Bush. When asked, “When you consider American objectives in the Middle East, what factors do you think are important to the United States?” the Arab answers came as follows:
Fully 76 percent said the Americans are there for the oil, 68 percent said to protect Israel, 63 percent to dominate the region, and 59 percent to weaken the Muslim world. Only 6 percent said we were there to protect human rights and another 6 percent said to promote democracy. Asked directly if they believe President Bush when he says democracy is our goal, two of every three Arabs, 78 percent in Egypt, said that, no, they do not believe Bush.
Asked to name the two nations that present the greatest threat to regional peace, 70 percent named Israel, 63 percent the United States, and 11 percent Britain. Only 6 percent named our bête noire Iran.
Asked to name the foreign leader they disliked most, Sharon swept top honors with 45 percent. Bush took the silver with 30 percent. No one else was close. Tony Blair came in a weak third. Only 3 percent of the Arabs detest him most.
While only 6 percent agreed with al-Qaeda’s aim to establish an Islamic state and only 7 percent approve of its methods, 20 percent admire the way al-Qaeda “stood up for Muslim causes” and 36 percent admire how it “confronts the U.S.”
Favorite news source? Sixty-five percent named Al-Jazeera either as their favorite or second favorite. What Fox News is to red-state America, Al-Jazeera is to the Arab street.
America’s standing in the Arab world could hardly be worse. And the questions the survey raises are these: Do we care? And, if we do, do not the Arabs have a point? Has not U.S. behavior in the Middle East lent credence to the view that our principal interests are Israel and oil, and, under Bush II, that we launched an invasion to dominate the region?
After all, before liberating Kuwait, Secretary of State Baker said the coming war was about “o-i-l.” And while we sent half a million troops to rescue that nation of 1.5 million, we sent none to Rwanda, where perhaps that many people were massacred.
If Kuwait did not sit on an underground sea of oil, would we have gone in? Is our military presence in the Mideast unrelated to its control of two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves?
If human rights is our goal, why have we not gone into Darfur, the real hellhole of human rights? If democracy is what we are fighting for, why did we not invade Cuba, a dictatorship, 90 miles away, far more hostile to America than Saddam’s Iraq, and where human rights have been abused for half a century? Saddam never hosted nuclear missiles targeted at U.S. cities.
And is Israel not our fair-haired boy? Though Sharon & Co. have stomped on as many UN resolutions as Saddam Hussein ever did, they have pocketed $100 billion in U.S. aid and are now asking for a $2 billion bonus this year, Katrina notwithstanding. Anyone doubt they will get it?
Though per capita income in Israel is probably 20 times that of the Palestinians, Israel gets the lion’s share of economic aid. And though they have flipped off half a dozen presidents to plant half a million settlers in Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank, have we ever imposed a single sanction on Israel? Has Bush ever raised his voice to Ariel Sharon? And when you listen to the talking heads and read the columns of the neocon press, is it unfair to conclude that, yes, they would like to dump over every regime that defies Bush or Sharon?
Empathy, a capacity for participating in another’s feelings or ideas, is indispensable to diplomacy. Carried too far, as it was by the Brits in the 1930s, it can lead to appeasement. But an absence of empathy can leave statesmen oblivious as to why their nation is hated, and with equally fateful consequences.
January 16, 2006 Issue
What is so wrong about going to war for a resource our nation requires?
All the posters on this thread nailed Pat. I'd only add that he reminds me of John 'effin Kerry in this sense - Pat brings up that he worked for Nixon with about the same frequency that Kerry brings up the fact that he served in Vietnam. And my reaction is approximately the same in both cases.
Buchanan forgot to take his meds again.
Note to Pat......I DON'T WANT THE PEOPLE OF THOSE COUNTRIES TO LIKE ME!
virtually all media and commentators do, unfortunately,
You may want to ping your list for this one....
Buchanan is out of his mind in relation to Israel....
So let me get this straight. What we need to do is impose sanctions on Israel, and let France and China run the world.
Oh, and we should praise polls designed by the liberal Brookings Institute conducted by our good friend, Zogby.
Thanks for weighing in, Pat.
We know why our nation is hated. It is because we dared address the problem in Iraq directly. People who believe the Iraqi's are worse off today are just not accepting reality. They are buying a media fed line which is the source of 90% of Anti-American hate in the world. How else do you explain liberation being described as invasion and democracy as dangerous?
We have a choice, play the diplomacy game the old way and be tarred and feathered for cavorting with the enemy and making deals with the devil or else we do what needs to be done to produce long standing results rather than relying on the suppression of human interests for temporary diplomatic gains. I think it is better to be tarred and feathered and know you are doing what is right than the alternative of fully deserving every bit of it.
70% of Arabs see Israel as the biggest threat to peace, despite the fact that Arab armies attempted to invade Israel SIX TIMES and despite the fact that Muslim suicide bombers continue to kill innnocents in Israel. Yep, they're sure a threat to peace all right.
Seems to me that's of national interest and security...and what does a nation have a military for if not to provide national security and protect national interests.
This article is pure spin. I am not surprised by the polls...the worlds media hates us, because stupid, factless, bash America rants make people there feel better, and allows foreign governments to hid their corruption, and of course sells papers. It's pretty ridiculous to assume polls in the region would have anything kind to say about the US.
If we announced tomorrow that we were withdrawing our troops from every post around the world and letting the Chinese take over...with the comment that "The Chinese will ensure you have human rights, freedom, and such." I wonder what the worlds reaction would be.
What do you suppose drove him to hate Jews so much? When did he go off the deep end. Was he molested as a child by a Rabbi?
LOL
that's about the way I read it too....
You are what you eat.
I have a love hate relationship with Pat.
I love to hate him.
Seriously, the man is brilliant, but he is also crazy. I really think that.
“Jews turned me into a newt.”
Ahhh yes, Patrick Buchanan. Mr. "Lets build a super wall around America that extends to outerspace and live behind it."" Mr. "If everyone says up, I will say down just to be different." Mr. "Hey, pay attention to me I'm being nuts!!!" Mr. "unless you agree with me 100% you should be impeached." And on and on and on.
If we were living
in 1933, Pat
would be "wondering"
if maybe, somehow,
the Jews really were the root
of Germany's grief . . .
I wonder how we polled in Japan or Germany c. 1943?
Gosh Pat, did Hitler and Tojo have a point?
"Jews turned me into a newt."
Could be worse. Gingrich's parents turned him into a Newt, and he didn't get better!
Actually, if it weren't for the presence of oil, it would make very little difference who dominated the region. Without oil, the Middle East would have an economy similar to that of most of Africa.
They are the original parasitic region of the world. We hand immense sums of money over to them, much of which they use to plot against us.
WE found the oil. WE developed the resource. WE get it to its markets. WE allow them to control it, in allegiance to our own principles, not theirs.
Does anyone seriously think a militarily irresistible Muslim or Arab country would pay infidels gigantic sums for access to a resource necessary to its own economy?
As Clive famously said, I am astonished by our moderation. Yet we get no credit for it whatsoever.
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