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
<< I started disagreeing with Buchanan years ago over his economic policies. But now I detest him for his anti-America and anti-semitic views. Go live somewhere else if it's so wrong here, Pat! We'll manage fine without you. >>
Hear! Hear!
Trade Luddite Buchanan long ago jumped the shark - but this froth and foam flecked measure of his malice is surely serious evidence of pathological derangement.
Keep this up and Mr Buchannan's for the Korsokoff's Ward.
To think I once liked this guy.
Codswallop.
Thay got that part right.. Just because they are crazy don't mean they are stupid..
Pat is intelligent.
When sane, it's easy to see why he was once a mover in the party and movement. People that befriended him then still have some attachment.
This article is why Pat has become to us, what Gore has become to the Democrats. The difference is that Buchanon has been cut down by us for this nonsense in terms of influence, but the Democrats (not the Clinton's/mutual enemy list) still have use for Gore.
I used to look askance at people that labeled him an anti-semite or bigot. No longer, and not for quite some time. Be it Jews or Hispanics and, despite his attempt to use Arabs to make a point, Arabs in the M.E. Pat can always be depended to have an intense rejection of these peoples. Pat IS an isolationist, which does tend to mask these feelings, as the first can hide his sentiments to race or ethnity for awhile. Over the long term it becomes clear he's not just an isolationist, which is a position I can disagree with but that is not the same as ingrained prejudices.
Pat may be unaware that recent polls from reliable units have shown opinion starting to shift from lopsided American hostilities, with Osama/Zarqawi starting to register as disliked more. Instead he relies on Zogby, who has questionable ties to terroist sympathezers.
Equating FOX to al Jazeera is pathetic, discrediting him right at the start.
And if Pat wants to know why the numbers are so lopsided in non democracies toward Americans? It's because they are not free and spoon fed certain beliefs. No free Democracy registers numbers as lopsided as 90% that he cites. That's about as legit as saddam winning election with 99% of the vote.
Great points all...
I don't know how his postition plays with the libs...his sister Bay is involved with a border control group..that has been trying to latch on to Tom Tancredo of Colo...
I think he is in a fringe group not of either party there.
Nazism just pops right out of 'em at times, when they start getting senile.
Pat has turned into even more of a nut
Pat Buchanan is nothing more than a rather large POS BUMP! But now I detest him for his anti-America and anti-semitic views.
Go live somewhere else if it's so wrong here, Pat!
Buchanan forgot to take his meds again.
Buchanan is out of his mind in relation to Israel Typical anti-Jewish rant from Buchanan.
What do you suppose drove him to hate Jews so much?
I love to hate him
Mr. "Hey, pay attention to me I'm being nuts!!!"
It's official: Pat is now completely off his rocker
Pat lost an uncle at the death camps. He fell out of the tower.
Pat's swastika is showing again.
One thing you can be sure of--his hatred of Jews stems from a deep sense of insecurity about himself.
You, Pat Buchanan, are nothing more than a mean, ugly throwback to the 1930's and Father Coughlin
Cannot decided which is more appalling that Pat Buchanan has decided to come right out and be an active propaganda mouth piece for Al Qeda or that some Freepers actually think this garbage is worthy of posting here.
He's lost his mind and doesn't even know it.
I have my students read some Hitler, so they can understand the depraved mind
Only the worst kind of man would write this, mainly because he knows its not true, and intellectually dishonest, but he writes it anyway
Ech, Pat should live with his fellow Nazi pigs in Arabia.
I'm surprised his Donner Party compatriots aren't coming to his defense.
Hey Pat ... if it wasn't obvious before ... it is now .. you hate the jews I have been flamed many times on FR...for calling Pat what he is: an anti-semite...
And these are just from first 100 posts. Sad. Grim. Pathetic.
I voted for Pat in 92... Big mistake...
"Though per capita income in Israel is probably 20 times that of the Palestinians, Israel gets the lion’s share of economic aid."
How about the money that has gone down the sewer trying to help the Palis? What about the billions Arab-fat stashed away?
Piss off, Pat.
The ONLY reason Egypt and Jordan get aid is for keeping peace with Isreal.
I see pat and his patsies are still alive and just as odious as ever.
Pat is a piece of garbage. He speaks for no one.
I always wondered, now I know Pat is an anti-semite.
I agree with you 100%. Without the West, the Arabs would be using oil to give shape their hair.
Could you be more specific about the facts ignored or overlooked?
Pat's analysis around Israel also takes the facts only as he wishes to see them. Israel being sanctioned by the UN ignores the undeniable anti-Semitic bias of the organization. The disparity between Israeli and Palistinian incomes ignores the corruption and graft by Palistinian leadership that steals the sizeable amounts of aid that flow into their coffers and leaves their people destitute and undeveloped.
I don't think Pat is anti-Semitic. I do think Pat is an isolationist, and resents the difficulties he sees us as undergoing because of our support for Israel. I think this has colored his thinking and his positions.
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.