WASHINGTON - A large majority of
the US public believes that President George W
Bush, whose carefully cultivated image of
no-nonsense cowboy toughness has been a hallmark
of his presidency, has become the Rodney
Dangerfield of international politics, according
to the latest in a series of annual surveys by the
Gallup polling firm.
Dangerfield, a
much-loved comedian who died last October, was
best known for his one-line complaint, "I don't
get no respect" -
the
theme on which he based most of his material
beginning in the early 1970s.
Now,
according to the Gallup's latest World Affairs
survey released late last week, only a third of
the US public believe that world leaders "respect"
Bush, while nearly two-thirds, or 63%, think his
foreign counterparts "don't respect him much".
It was his worst showing since he became
president five years ago, and marked a dramatic
decline from his best performance on this question
shortly after the US-orchestrated ouster of the
Taliban in Afghanistan in February 2002, when
three out of four respondents said Bush was well
respected abroad.
The survey conducted
between February 6 and 9, based on telephone
interviews with a random sample of 1,002 adults,
also found that only 43% of the US public is
satisfied with Washington's image in the world
today, down from a high under Bush of 71% after
the Taliban's ouster and another high of 69%
during the invasion of Iraq in April 2003.
And, in a sign of possible things to come,
the new survey found that for the first time since
Bush became president, Iran is the country
considered by a plurality of the public - nearly
one-third - as Washington's greatest foreign
enemy, significantly ahead of Iraq (22%), North
Korea (15%), and China (10%).
When asked
to name Washington's greatest foe in two previous
World Affairs polls in 2001 and 2005, respondents
placed Iran third behind either Iraq and China or
Iraq and North Korea.
The Iran findings,
which come amid a sharp rise in tensions between
Tehran and Washington over Iran's nuclear program
and controversial statements by President Mahmud
Ahmedinejad over the past six months, echo those
of a similar survey released by the Pew Research
Center for People and the Press.
The survey, combined with another two polls
conducted by Gallup (on behalf of CNN and USA Today) and
CBS, offers new evidence that the public is
increasingly disillusioned with Bush's management
of foreign policy. In the CBS poll, Bush's overall
job rating has fallen to 34%, down from 42% in
January. Fifty-nine percent disapprove of the job
the president is doing. For the first time in this
poll, most Americans say the president does not
care much about people like themselves. Fifty-one
percent now think he doesn't care, compared with
47% last autumn. Just 30% approve of how Bush is
handling the Iraq war, another all-time
low.
In the former survey, conducted
between February 9 and 12, Gallup's pollsters
found that 55% of the US public now believe
Washington made a mistake in sending troops to
Iraq - the highest percentage recorded since the
invasion except for a brief period after Hurricane
Katrina last September, when 59% of respondents
said it was a mistake.
Gallup analyst
Jeffrey Jones noted in an article accompanying the
poll results that of the six major conflicts in
which the US was engaged after World War II, only
the Vietnam War provoked greater public opposition
while the conflict was still taking place.
In two Vietnam-era surveys - in 1971, when
the administration of Richard Nixon was already
embarked on a major withdrawal of US troops; and
in 1973, on the eve of the signing of Paris Peace
Accords - some 60% of the public said the war was
a "mistake".
The more recent survey also
found the public to be more pessimistic about
progress in the Iraq war than ever before, with
only 31% saying the US and its allies are winning.
That finding could bode particularly ill
for the administration's hopes of resisting
growing demands that Washington withdraw its
troops earlier rather than later, particularly in
the wake of last week's bombing of the Golden
Mosque in Samarra and the sectarian violence that
followed it. Most analysts here believe that
pressure on the administration to withdraw US
troops will grow sharply if Iraq tips into civil
war.
The latest poll results come amid
growing political troubles for Bush, who is having
an increasingly difficult time keeping even
Republican lawmakers in line on a number of
national-security issues.
The current flap
over the administration's decision to approve,
without a major national-security review, the
lease of some 20 terminals in six major east coast
ports to a Dubai company provoked an unprecedented
revolt by the Republican congressional leadership
over an issue that has heretofore been considered
Bush's strong point: national security.
"The revolt showed that Bush's strength in
Congress has significantly eroded as he begins his
sixth year as president," noted Fred Barnes, the
executive editor of the neo-conservative Weekly
Standard and a staunch White House loyalist. "In
effect, his Republican base is no longer secure."
Bush is also facing questions from both
Democrats and Republicans about a proposed
nuclear-power deal with India that he hopes to
nail down in a much-ballyhooed trip to New Delhi
and Islamabad this week. The White House had hoped
that the tour - especially to India, which is seen
increasingly as a strategic ally - would help
restore his image as a decisive and visionary
leader rallying the world behind him.
But
that image appears increasingly hollow, according
to the World Affairs survey, which suggests that
most of his own compatriots have come to believe
he has lost the respect of his foreign
counterparts.
The poll noted that the US
public was fairly skeptical of Bush as a respected
world leader until the attacks on New York and the
Pentagon on September 11, 2001, with an average of
only 45% saying he was respected during his first
six months in office, about the same as his
predecessor, Bill Clinton. After September 11 and
the ouster of the Taliban, however, public opinion
rallied to his side.
From early February
2002, however, it has been downhill. Indeed, since
February 2003 - one month before the Iraq invasion
- pluralities said they believed Bush didn't have
much respect from the leaders of other countries,
and, as of February 2004, those pluralities became
majorities.
But the latest poll showed
further significant erosion, with only one-third
of respondents insisting that he retains respect
overseas, compared with nearly 40% one year ago.
In addition, for the second year in a row,
more US citizens believe that the overall
perception of the US in the rest of the world is
unfavorable than those who believe it is
favorable.
This belief is certainly borne
out by recent polls. One conducted between October
and January of citizens of 33 nations for the BBC
World Service found that positive ratings of the
US had dropped 5 points overall since 2004, and
had significantly declined in 10 countries,
including European allies such as Britain and
Italy.
And a Pew poll last June found that
in 13 of the 14 countries in Europe, Asia and the
Middle East surveyed - the exception being Poland
- pluralities or majorities said Bush's
re-election made them feel worse about the United
States.
