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Now, the ugly
America
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - While the speed of the United
States conquest of Iraq and the general belief that
Iraqis are better off without former president Saddam
Hussein were moderating factors, the image of the US is
far more negative in Europe and the Muslim world than a
year ago, according to a poll of 20 countries released
in the capital on Tuesday.
The survey, the
latest in a series by the Pew Global Attitudes Project
that polled attitudes toward the US and international
relations in 44 countries, also found that the United
Nations has been a "major victim" of the conflict in
Iraq due to the perception that it was no longer
relevant.
"The war has widened the rifts between
Americans and Western Europeans, further inflamed the
Muslim world, softened support for the war on terrorism
and significantly weakened global public support for the
pillars of the post-World War II era - the UN and the
North Atlantic Alliance [NATO]," says a summary of the
more than 200-page report.
In particular, strong
majorities, ranging from 57 percent in Germany to 76
percent in France, in five of seven NATO countries
surveyed said that they support a more independent
relationship with Washington on diplomatic and security
matters.
At the same time, adds the report, "The
bottom has fallen out of support for America in most of
the Muslim world," with overwhelmingly negative views
that were confined mainly to Arab countries last summer
having now spread to a much broader band, from Nigeria
in the west to Indonesia in the east.
The report
also includes a major section on public attitudes toward
globalization, based largely on last year's 44-nation
survey. Among other findings, it concluded that economic
integration, strong private sectors and democratic
ideals are largely accepted in most parts of the world
and that the influence of multinational corporations was
considered positive overall, particularly in Africa.
Previous reports by the Pew Global Attitudes
Project, which is guided by a broad-based international
advisory board chaired by former secretary of state
Madeleine Albright, have been widely quoted, especially
by foes of the more hawkish policies pursued by the
administration of President George W Bush.
The
44-country poll, which centered on foreign attitudes
towards the US, found a precipitous drop in Washington's
favorability ratings compared to a similar poll
conducted in the summer of 2000, the last year of Bill
Clinton's presidency. It also found that the decline in
US standing was due far more to opposition to specific
policies and the unilateralist course pursued by the
administration than to the rejection of US political or
cultural values.
The new poll finds that, if
anything, the negative trend established by the 2000 and
2002 surveys has continued for a third year, despite a
notable upturn in US standing between March - when polls
in half a dozen European countries showed a major plunge
in Washington's image - and last month, when the most
recent surveys were carried out.
In France, for
example, only 25 percent of respondents rated the US
favorably in March, just before the invasion began. But
after the war, favorability bounced back to 43 percent,
substantially more than two months before, but still
significantly less than the 63 percent approval rating
that the French gave the US in the summer of 2002.
In addition to the US, the May poll covered 20
countries, including five West European nations, Russia,
eight predominantly Muslim countries, including the
Palestinian Authority (PA), and Israel, Brazil, Nigeria,
Australia, South Korea and Canada.
Questioning
some 16,000 people worldwide, it found that approval of
the US has fallen in every European country since the
summer of 2002, including in those states, such as
Britain, that supported Washington in the war.
Favorability ratings were highest in Israel (79
percent) and Britain (70 percent) and lowest in Turkey
(15 percent, down from 52 percent in 2000), Pakistan (13
percent) and Jordan and the PA, where only 1 percent of
respondents said that they had favorable opinions of the
US.
Declines were highest in the Islamic world.
In Indonesia, for example, only 15 percent of
respondents expressed favorable opinions for the US, a
steep decline from 61 percent just last summer. Among
Muslim respondents in Nigeria, favorability fell from 71
percent to 38 percent.
Moreover, a growing
percentage of Muslims see the US as a serious threat to
Islam and express "at least some confidence" in Osama
bin Laden to "do the right thing regarding world
affairs". On the latter issue, solid majorities in the
PA, Indonesia and Jordan and nearly one-half in Morocco
and Pakistan voiced some support for the al-Qaeda
leader.
By contrast, in most countries friendly
to the US, only modest percentages expressed similar
confidence in Bush. Indeed, people with unfavorable
views of the lone superpower, according to the report,
base most of their opinions on Bush, rather than on the
US generally. This was particularly true in Western
Europe. The survey found what it called "limited
optimism" for democratic reform in the Middle East after
the war and significant declines in support for the "war
on terrorism".
It also found considerable
criticism of US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. In 20 of 21 countries surveyed - the US being
the only exception - pluralities or majorities said that
they believed Washington favors Israel too much, an
opinion even shared by a strong plurality of 47 percent
in Israel itself.
The new results from the 2002
survey also found broad acceptance of the increasing
interconnectedness of the world, with three-quarters or
more of respondents saying that their children should
learn English.
At the same time, majorities
generally viewed the gap between rich and poor growing
and complained that their own situation had deteriorated
over the past five years, but they tended to blame
domestic factors rather than globalization. This was
especially true in Africa and Latin America.
The
same survey found that opponents of globalization are
not making much headway in influencing views of much of
the Third World, although respondents in Argentina,
Brazil, Jordan and Turkey were all highly critical of
certain institutional symbols of globalization, such as
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the
World Trade Organization.
(Inter Press
Service)
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