Global survey reveals discontent with U.S.

[ShiningIce]

WASHINGTON (AP) - In the eyes of much of the world, this is America: an inconsiderate lone wolf that has really good entertainment but really bad values, that wants war with Iraq just to get oil but still should remain as the only superpower on Earth.


AP Photo



In a broad international survey released Wednesday, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that 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 ill will toward the United States was also found 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. "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. But next door, only 25 percent of Canadians said America is a considerate world citizen. Perhaps surprisingly, U.S. foreign policy was deemed considerate by 53 percent of respondents in Germany, a harsh critic of President Bush (news - web sites)'s position on Iraq.


World citizens admire American technology and culture, but not the spread of U.S. ideas and customs; 54 percent of Canadians, 67 percent of Germans, 71 percent of the French and 84 percent of Egyptians said it would be bad to spread American ideas and customs.

But Canadians — 77 percent of them — also said they like American music, movies and TV. It was much the same for Venezuela (78 percent), Poland (70 percent), Japan (74 percent), Ivory Coast (84 percent) and Great Britain (76 percent).

U.S. officials have tried to do something about America's image problem abroad. The White House established an office of "global communications" to provide in-depth explanations of President Bush's foreign policy.

Madeleine Albright (news - web sites), secretary of state during the Clinton administration and chair of the Pew survey, said the fact that the United States is the world's only superpower may have led to the results.

"In many ways, we are viewed as the rich guy living on the hill," Albright said. "We have seen this coming since the end of the Cold War."

Most of the people surveyed said they don't want the world to again have more than one superpower. Even in Russia, 53 percent said they believe the world is safer with just one.

In Germany, the percentage of people who hold a favorable view of the United States fell 17 points over two years. In 1999/2000, 78 percent of Germans considered the United States favorably, this year 61 percent.

In Turkey, which is being actively courted for help in a possible war with Iraq, pro-U.S. views dropped from 52 percent to 30 percent.

Sentiments were similar in Argentina, where 34 percent saw the United States in a good light, compared to 50 percent two years ago. In Indonesia and the Slovak Republic, favorable ratings fell 14 points.

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.

Also, 21 countries rated the news media as a good influence, while the military was seen as a good influence in 15 countries. Five gave the top rating in influence to religious leaders. Only one, Ivory Coast, said the national government is the top influence.

In six countries — Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey and the United States — the majority said Iraq poses a great or moderate threat to the world, and Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) must go.

Only 22 percent of Americans said oil is the United States' real motive for pursuing war with Iraq, but 44 percent of the British, 75 percent of the French, 54 percent of Germans and 76 percent of Russians held that view.

When it comes to conditions at home, Uzbeks and the Vietnamese were the happiest of all. Sixty-nine percent said they are satisfied with the state of their countries. In Peru and Argentina, only 3 percent of respondents said they are pleased with the way things are at home.

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[asutickler]

What? We're unpopular in lots of nations that condone suicide bombings as a legitimate way to air one's greivances?!? Oh SAY it isn't SO! 😱 🙄 😛


Heh. To paraphrase The Rock... "It dosen't MATTER what they think!!!"


We should take a survey to see what WE think of the rest of the world. I'm pretty sure that we don't like lots of them, either... 🙄

 

[amk714]

I'm not surprised by the results of this survey. As long as America's foreign policy is flawed, some people in other countries, whether or not they're our allies, will view the U.S. negatively. Sad, really. And yes, it DOES matter what others think, particularly now when we're trying to get support for the war on terrorism. 🙁 Thanks for the article, Ice. Depressing, but informative. 🙂

 

[kurchatovium]

No it doesn't matter what others think. I could careless what some antiquated arab state thinks of us. I say the only thing that is flawed is the people that took part in the survey. I say we are on the right path and those in the rest of the world that don't like it can kiss our a$$. Thanks for the artice Ice it cheered me up greatly cause it assures me that we are heading in the right direction.

 

[qjakal]

Lebanon...

"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. "

This from a country with so much innocent blood on its hands that all the waters of the Nile couldn't begin to wash it clean.....bah. They need to look to themselves and their actions, the "finger" they point is blood smeared and stained indeed. Q

 

[kurchatovium]

Like I said its the respondents that are flawed, not us.

 

[Krokus]

I mean really now....

Who cares what Canada thinks...IT'S CANADA!!! America Jr.!! Lol.

 

[Strelnikov]

Repulsed by Arabs

We have Arabs to thank for 9/11, for the deaths of American servicemen on the USS Cole and in Lebanon and Saudi, for the deaths of Americans and Africans in the embassy bombings, and many more outrages over the past 30 years. We haven't yet had to contend with homicide bombers like the Israelis have, but that may be just a matter of time.

Beyond the atrocities themselves, the celebration of them by ordinary Palestinians and other Arabs, and their sanctioning by various Arab regimes, is without precedent. In comparing Hitler's massacre of the Jews, Michael Oren wrote in The Wall Street Journal, "For all the kudos discreetly given {the SS assassins} by the regime, Nazi Germany never publicly lionized them, never plastered their pictures on the streets or openly encouraged children to emulate them. That kind of adoration of mass murderers can only be found, in abundance, among the Palestinians." And among the rag head bastards who cheered when the WTC came down and killed over 3000 of us.

The time is long overdue for those who declare themselves at war with us, to get a real appreciation of the consequences. The destruction of the Taliban regime demonstrated our resolve. Iraq is next. After that, we have scores to settle with Hezbollah and Hamas, with Syria and Libya. They'll hate us, of course. That bothers me not at all. Quoting Roman statesman Cicero: "Let them hate, so long as they fear."

Strelnikov

 

[JoBelle]

Such a sad state.

I'm not surprised that we ranked so low on the totem pole of world opinion. No one ever likes the kid in class with the big car, the new clothes, the nice new gadget of the day. Everyone wants to be his friend though. 😛

I've noticed in world reporting that one little fact still remains. Most people don't hate Americans as people. They hate Americans that stand behind a foreign policy that is often at times questionable. To the rest of the world, foreign policy IS America. Sad thing since most Americans don't have a clue as to what our government does after it takes money from our paychecks. Ask ten people on the street what America's stance is on ANY topic, and I'm willing to wager my life savings that 9 of them are clueless.

American government stagnates in a puddle of career politicians. Our government is not now equipped to handle the ideal American state of grace. That would involve change. Ammendment power is my rally point to prove that we're not running our country the way it would work best. We're allowing a small group of very wealthy individuals to represent us to the world. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the world thinks that we all hold pockets full of Benjamins and carelessly meander through life. Until the apathy of the current voting populace changes, our world standing will continue to fall. Shame on the naysayers who think involvement is not a moral duty.

I don't blame the rest of the world for the way they think.

However,

I blame them for sucking up all things American then bashing us without mercy. I blame them for owning American music, cars, clothes, entertainment, art, products, you name it....while they do the verbal equivalent of burning Old Glory. I am disgusted at the hypocricy in the world. But, I'm an American, and aren't we just the biggest bunch of jerks around?

JOBY

 

[Ticklish9's]

Interesting

Who should solve the world's problems? How about ANYBODY ELSE? Just as the rest of the world appears to be sick of us interfering in their problems, we are getting pretty sick over here of picking up the world's mess time and again like some global parental figure - particularly ironic given the relative age of almost the entire remainder of the world. While I'm hardly an isolationist, more cooperation in foreign affairs is precisely what America wants and what the other nations want from us (barring the muslim nations for the most part), yet when it comes time to foot the bill it is all too easy for these same other nations to fade away and remark on how little they participated as an excuse for not paying...saddening, really. In an era when co-operation has at last become utterly dominant over competition for survival, it is the one thing nations have yet to embrace properly.

 

[Biggles of 266]

Most people don't hate Americans as people. They hate Americans that stand behind a foreign policy that is often at times questionable. To the rest of the world, foreign policy IS America.

I think that hatred of America isn't a hatred of Americans. Countries can hate a government or a policy, but to simply blanket all Americans as jerks (insert own insult here) is to lower yourself to the level of generic insult. You might as well call all Arabs rag heads, all Australians sheep stealers, all black people... you get the point...

I dunno if I've made any points at all. I know what I wanna say, and how I wanna say it, but somewhere between my head and my keyboard it gets all screwed up.

Biggles

 

[milagros317]

(most deleted)
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.

And my sincere feelings towards them are as follows: May they roast in hell until beyond the end of time for their sins against the people of Israel.

 

[august spies]

there is only one thing that bothers me in all of those right wing posting, if all you care about are american lives, and think its fun to kill civilians overseas for resources, whatever be a right wing idiot, and complaining when it comes back to hit you in the face only makes you look more stupid.

but strelnikov seemed to hint that he cared about Africans being killed. Did you care about all the africans killed in the congo, or rwanda? did you care about the cia murder of the congos first and last democratic government. so now event though it is one of the richest nations in terms of resources, it is one of the pooerest. because youve extracted everything, and the only thing you put into it was arms to a corrupt brutal government.

your only fooling yourself.

 

[Krokus]

Hm

Here is a great way to put it. I could give a s**t less what happens in any other country. The only people I care about right now are Americans. We need to start focusing on our own damn country and let the world take care of themselves for once.

 

[qjakal]

Focus?

there is only one thing that bothers me in all of those right wing posting, if all you care about are american lives, and think its fun to kill civilians overseas for resources, whatever be a right wing idiot, and complaining when it comes back to hit you in the face only makes you look more stupid.

Fun? Do you actually read what the topic is before you reply? Did someone mention "killing civilians for resources" whatever the heck that means? Do you REALLY think we lack resources to such a degree that we need to annex them militarily from somewhere? If so, why didn't we keep Kuwait? Why don't we just seize a few million acres of oil rich land? Because that's NOT the way we operate...luckily for the world. Despite your rants about how evil the conservative branch of our population behaves, this doesn't happen.

The rest of the "world" that you're polling gets about 1% of the news...the 1% that their benevolent leaders allow to reach them, and they draw their conclusions accordingly. That's almost understandable in their case, although the paradox of why we aren't grabbing land, since we're the Great Satan and evil as well as powerful, should occur to them at some point. Hopefully it will occur to others with more access to a variety of information as well...sheesh.

Q

 

[Ticklish9's]

The Evil Empire

I love people who bash America...particularly since all those lucky Ethiopians really have it good, y'know?

In 200+ years we've taken and forged a brand new country, based on an ideal code of governence and open to people from around the globe. Have we always lived up to our dream? Of course not - people are quick to point out America's many past failures - and American's, since we actually believe that we SHOULD be living by a higher standard, are quick to feel hurt and offended. Nevermind that no other country in the entire world has ever lived up to even their own standards, let alone ours, in terms of freedom and compassion.

I think Dave said it best some time ago...next time there is an international crisis, we aren't coming. Next time some small country is getting bullied around, we aren't coming. Next time somebody underestimates the need for food AGAIN, we aren't coming. Let somebody else ride to the rescue. It's the most thankless job on the world market, and we've been doing it without a word of gratitude for a century. Well, it's hand off time for that relay baton.

 

[kurchatovium]

Well put Ticklish9's. Let someone else try to come forward when there is a crisis and when they don't and everyone starts whining then maybe the world will realize how important our country really is. Also I think turning the UN into a giant video game parlor would be a step in the right direction.

 

[august spies]

killing people for resources isnt that hard to understand, just take a minute and think about it.

people have resources, the US wants those resources, The us wont share those resources, so people have to be killed.

Most of the worlds resources are in the South, most of the worlds money is in the north. the north has been stealing the souths resources since the old imperial age, and they didnt all of a suddon have a change of heart.

in case you havent noticed for the past 40 or so years all of latin and south america was just one big US colongy full of us created military dictatorships, Corporations went in and set up economies for resource extraction. that is why there is so much poverty in the south and so much wealth in the north.

resources are not only raw materials, but also cheap sweatshop labor, and the ability to pollute the environment without fear of reprecussions.

many leaders of the global south such as sukarno of indonesia werent communists they just wanted to share there resources, but the goal of capitalism is to take as much as you can get, so the us got rid of him and indonesia was living under brutal military rule for almost 40 years, the congo, africa, same story.

 

[BigJim]

As they say............



People in glass houses..............

No one nation has a right to say that another nation is the cause of all the world's ills. It needs a collective mind-set change by humanity to even begin to change things.

 

[kurchatovium]

The poverty in South America is due to the dictatorships enslaving their people. Nothing more, nothing less. If those people overthrew their goverment they would be on the road to better economies and a better life. Trying to find others to blame your plight on gets you no where in my humble opinion. Certainly the road to a better economy would be slow but a change in the goverment is a necessary first step I think.

The other trouble in many third world countries is that they sell their primary resources and don't get the return on the dollar that they could. You have to sell iron ore pretty cheap, smelted iron you could get a little more for, steel would be even better, but a set of knives or a car is ideal. The trouble is to get to these higher things there has to be a stable goverment. Now one could argue all day about whose fault the instability is but ultimately if the people in those places organized and threw out the old goverment and put in a new one that would help. The fall of communism shows that one can accomplish these things. They take time and a lot of hard work but it is possible. Big companies would also much rather have more stable places to put Mcdonalds, or sell Pepsi, or TV's rather than dangerous places with unstable goverments. I would say in my view if we can improve the worlds economy everyone benefits even the US ultimately.

A few words about the garment industry they do farm out much of their work to poor people in poor countries. Often times many of these people are minors. The big shot designers know this is going on but these things get subcontracted out so the big designers can stay anonomyous and don't get their fingers dirty. Unfortunately if you just stopped this from happening you would cut off a source of income for these impoverished people. It's horrible that kids have to work in these conditions but it would be far worse if they and their familes starved to death. Actions have consequences and one must think before one acts. You can not throw a pebble into a pond and not make any waves. The way to improve these conditons is going to be a hard slow process one that must be thought out carefully so that suffering is minimized.

Ok my speech is over for today. Take care.

 

[august spies]

where did those dictatorships come from? the north

infact pepsi had a direct hand in creating chiles dictatorship

 

[kurchatovium]

Yeah right I suppose Dr. Pepper caused the Bosnia crisis. Coke is probably responsible for the Killing Fields. Snapple is responsible for the invasion of Kuwait. Give me a break. There is a time when people are responsible for their own plight, not every thing that is wrong in the world can be blamed on someone else. It is at that time you must ask yourself if you are going to do something about your situation or just go back to blaming all your problems on someone else.

 

[ShiningIce]

I wouldnt so readily dismiss these claims if I were you Kurch some of these accusations are valid. I remember when Coca Cola was supporting the racist governement of South Africa back in the 80's and early 90's b4 Mandela. Just cuz they make soda doesnt mean they're not all multi billion dollar companies with a lot of political influence and power.

 

[Deleted member 2452]

are you people on drugs?

wait, knowing some of you, yes i think you are, so scratch that.
coke sold coke to who ever was thirsty, period! they didn't opress anyone. pepsi? pepsi caused the troubles in latin america? damn, and here i thought it was the colonial powers of spain, and portugul! wow, i wasn't aware that pepsi is older than the united states?
hello! wake up, get help you loons!
back to the original thread; if we're so bad, why do these countries keep getting in line to receive our money!? frig them. oh, btw, i don't care what anyone out side of the u.s. thinks of us. they are just jealous.
steve

 

[august spies]

you right wingers need to wake up. you hear accusations that im sure you have never heard before, and because you cant prove them wrong you just go off on an idiotic rant.

heres the facts:
pepsi co had many bottling plants in chile, the democratic government was trying to get better working conditions for the workers because they were horrible, and the unions were strong. The corporations with the biggest hand in brining about the dictatorship was ITT which wanted total countrol of Chiles copper mines. the even pledged a million dollars of their own money to the CIA.

Sept 11th 73 the coup happens and thousands of chilians are tortured, imprisoned and killed, including an american citizen. all with the support of the US, both tatically, financialy, and militarialy.

So no, its not the chilian unionist with his testicles hooked up to a car battery who is to blame, it is your ignorance of your own government.

actually since somone brought it up, yes coke supported aparthied, and actually has been known to hire death squads to assasinate its union leaders in colombia.

I duno if anyone is a movie fan, but there is a great movie called Missing, with jack lemmon. its the true story of the american who was murdered after the coup. anyway there is a great scene (the corporate adds are well placed) where a chilian gets machine gunned then dies slumping over a pepsi logo.