posted
Bad news, America: World doesn't like We the People By David Wood
Newhouse News Service
WASHINGTON — The United States long has been a source of irritation for the rest of the world, but the news is worse this year.
While Europeans and Asians and Arabs increasingly have disliked U.S. policies or specific U.S. leaders in recent years, Americans were liked and admired.
Polls show an ominous turn. Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in countries such as Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think Americans are honest.
"We found a rising antipathy toward Americans," said Bruce Stokes of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which interviewed 93,000 people in 50 countries over four years.
Few analysts expect more than marginal improvements, short of another Sept. 11.
"In my judgment, you're going to see a lot of this hostility disappear only when various countries really feel they need friendly relations with the United States, probably for their own security," said Richard Solomon, a veteran diplomat and negotiator who is president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a federally funded nonpartisan think tank. "It will probably take some major event for that to take place."
The dislike is accelerating among youth, Stokes said. For example, 20 percent of Britons younger than 30 have an unfavorable opinion of Americans, double the percentage of 2002.
The problem, Stokes said, "is Americans, not just [President] Bush."
In increasing numbers, people around the globe resent U.S. power and wealth and reject specific actions such as the occupation of Iraq and the campaign against democratically elected Palestinian leaders, in-depth international polling shows.
America's image problem is pervasive, deep and perhaps permanent, analysts say, an inevitable outcome of being the world's only superpower.
Stokes and his colleagues at the Pew Research Center, a respected, nonpartisan public-opinion group in Washington, D.C., found that fewer and fewer people see the United States as a land of high ideals and opportunity. More than half those asked in France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Britain said the "spread of American ideas and customs" was a "bad thing."
This represents a major challenge for the United States, which, after a period of aggressive "go-it-alone" foreign policy, again is coming to rely on allies and international partners.
For example, the United States has counted on Britain, France, Germany and the United Nations to persuade or coerce the Iranian government to abandon its nuclear program. And it shares its military burden with 9,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan and 20,000 in Iraq.
Credibility problem
Keeping the peace, winning the war on terrorism and other critical goals are achievable "only if people like you and trust you," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.
Instead, Kohut and his associates find U.S. credibility eroding, even among NATO allies.
Almost half those polled in Britain, France and Germany dispute the concept of a global war on terrorism, and a majority of Europeans think the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. More than two-thirds of Germans, French and Turks think U.S. leaders lied about the reasons for war and think the United States is less trustworthy than it once was.
Kohut found a significant decline among those holding "favorable" views of the United States. In Brazil, 52 percent held a favorable view of the United States in 2002; that had dropped to 34 percent one year later. In Russia, the pro-U.S. portion of the population dropped from 61 percent to 36 percent over a year.
People also reject the U.S. lifestyle portrayed in films and TV. Asked where to find the "good life," no more than one in 10 people recommended the United States in a poll conducted in 13 countries, Kohut said. More popular: Canada, Australia, Britain and Germany. Only in India did the United States still represent the land of opportunity, he found.
No question this is bad news, but put it into perspective, Solomon said. "It's an attractive aspect of our culture that we worry about what other people think. The French couldn't care less if they make people unhappy."
Even friends are uneasy
Even among the United States' newest friends, such as India — where Bush in March signed an agreement on nuclear cooperation — there is "uneasiness about whether we have come too close to America and surrendered independence of judgment to the sole superpower," said Ambassador Salman Haidar, former Indian foreign secretary and head of its diplomatic corps.
The United States spends about $1 billion a year on international broadcasting and the public-relations campaign it calls "public diplomacy," run out of the State Department by former top Bush campaign operative Karen Hughes.
Separately, the Pentagon directs "information operations" and psychological-operations programs that have included paying journalists in Iraq to write favorable newspaper articles.
"We probably deserve a D or D-plus as a country as how well we're doing in the battle of ideas," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said March 27 at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. "We're going to have to find better ways to do it, and thus far we haven't."
Posts: 1364 | From: Somebody from Europe | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
"No question this is bad news, but put it into perspective, Solomon said. "It's an attractive aspect of our culture that we worry about what other people think. The French couldn't care less if they make people unhappy."
The above is pure BULL****.
NO nation or people in this world give a **** about what another nation(s) thinks.
Posts: 1364 | From: Somebody from Europe | Registered: Sep 2005
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I don't think we europeans "hate" or dislike Americans though, we just don't agree with Bush, but neither does the majority of Americans so there's no difference
Also I like the level of ambition, idealism, perseverance and motivation I always see in Americans, I can't explain it but it's definitely different from the average european. (being in a relationship with an American I get to see both sides)
Posts: 1091 | From: Brugge, Belgium / Dallas TX USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
allow me to share something with you Persia:
Jun 14,2007 NBC/WSJ Poll: Bush at 29 percent by UPI
WASHINGTON - President George Bush's job approval rating has sunk to 29 percent in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, his lowest number ever in the survey.
The poll released Wednesday shows Congress' approval rating has fallen to 23 percent, and just 19 percent of those polled think the United States is on the right track -- the lowest number on that question in almost 15 years.
posted
With all our problems and our backward political life.
And they way we are so prone to be led around by the nose by false leaders like Bush.
We always seem to have the strenght to bounce back with our freedom and I think we will this time to.
You could write a book obout our ignorance and turn aroud and find absolute genius in our ranks and the freedom to let it grow.
All said and done I am an American and proud of it period and ready tro fight its enemies domestic or forgien.
Posts: 6008 | From: phoenix az | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Persia: Bad news, America: World doesn't like We the People By David Wood
Newhouse News Service
WASHINGTON — The United States long has been a source of irritation for the rest of the world, but the news is worse this year.
While Europeans and Asians and Arabs increasingly have disliked U.S. policies or specific U.S. leaders in recent years, Americans were liked and admired.
Well at least the Haitian junior soccer team likes US
HAITI SOCCER TEENS BOLT TEAM AT JFK NEW LIFE IS THE GOOOOOAL
By CLEMENTE LISI
KICK IN THE PANTS: More than two-thirds of the Haitian junior national soccer team abandoned the squad after arriving at... June 14, 2007 -- Thirteen players on Haiti's national junior soccer squad deserted the team during a brief layover at Kennedy Airport early yesterday, just hours before a trip to South Korea to prepare for a major world tournament, authorities said.
The players abandoned the team sometime between Tuesday night and yesterday morning, said Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York.
By last night, five of the players were back with the team, but "we're still looking for the others," Augustin said.
It was unclear where the teens had been and why they left the team.
The team's 18 players, who arrived in New York from Haiti on Tuesday, were scheduled to fly to Seoul yesterday morning to play in a tournament ahead of the Under-17 World Cup, which will be held in eight cities across South Korea in August.
Augustin said he has been told by authorities that adults may have helped the players abscond, and warned that the grownups could face criminal charges unless they turn over the teens.
"It seems that some adults may have been involved. If so, they are going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Augustin, who declined to give further details.
Yves Jean-Bart, president of the Haitian soccer federation based in the capital Port-au-Prince, issued a stern warning, saying that the youngsters were hurting their futures. He threatened to involve U.S. authorities unless the players immediately return to the team.
But Lucille Cirillo, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said immigration officials would not typically get involved in such cases until the expiration of the players' tourist visas, which are good for six months.
Still, she said, the agency would help investigators in any way possible.
Jean-Bart, referring to the entire situation, told Haitian-based Radio Kiskeya, "This is extraordinary. We want our players back."
He said he did not know why the players would abandon the team or their homeland.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with thousands of citizens leaving the country each year to escape miserable living conditions and political instability.
The FBI, NYPD and Port Authority, which operates JFK, are assisting Haitian officials in determining the teens' whereabouts.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Haiti said officials there are also looking into the matter.
The team's coach, Jean-Yves Philogène Labaze, and his staff, were interviewed by authorities yesterday, but they failed to shed any light on where the players may have gone or who came to pick them up at the airport.
All the players on the team were born on or after Jan. 1, 1990, in accordance with tournament rules.
The desertion - the likes not seen since the days when former Communist Bloc athletes regularly defected from their teams - could deal a major blow to Haitian soccer, which has been experiencing a resurgence over the past few years after a string of dismal performances.
The Under-17 World Cup will be played from Aug. 19 to Sept. 9. The Haitian team will face France, Japan and Nigeria in the first round.
-------------------- "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" Posts: 4005 | From: Shaolin | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Persia: Few analysts expect more than marginal improvements, short of another Sept. 11.
i really doubt this, i would think folks around the world would think "thats what you get"
America's image problem is pervasive, deep and perhaps permanent, analysts say, an inevitable outcome of being the world's only superpower.
i think this is false but we need leaders like the men who founded this country to keep us off the track of so many others who venture to "bigdom"... lets see, the romans, aztecs, egyptians, soviet union, mongols, british empire,ottoman empire, shang dynasty, han dynasty, general motors,mike tyson... lol well you get the point..
-------------------- "Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over." Herbert Hoover 1930 Posts: 678 | From: currently in hiding due to investigation | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
persia is a tad beyond the ancient history side and more than a tad on the insulting side.
Not too bright either. The "sides' persia champions are like a stale cookie....prone to crumbling and no longer tasty.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
persia, you don't anger me, you are too comical and ill informed for that.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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