De Oorlogsstaat 62

De International Herald Tribune zet het allemaal nog even op een rijtje:
'Image of U.S. falls again
By Brian Knowlton International Herald TribunePublished: June 13, 2006
WASHINGTON As the war in Iraq continues for a fourth year, the global image of America has slipped further, even among publics in countries closely allied with the United States, a new global opinion poll has found.

Favorable views of the United States dropped sharply over the past year in Spain, where only 23 percent now say they have a positive opinion, down from 41 percent in 2005, according to the survey, which was carried out in 15 nations this spring by the Pew Research Center. In Britain, Washington's closest ally in the Iraq war, positive views of America have remained in the mid-50s in the past two years, still down sharply from 75 percent in 2002.

Other countries where positive views dropped significantly include India (56 percent, down from 71 percent since 2005); Russia (43 percent, down from 52 percent); and Indonesia (30 percent, down from 38 percent).

In Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, only 12 percent said they held a favorable opinion, down from 23 percent last year.

Declines were less steep in France, Germany and Jordan, while people in China and Pakistan had a slightly more favorable image of the United States this year than last.

The ebbing of positive views of the United States coincides with a spike in feeling that the war in Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place. This perception was shared by majorities in 10 of the countries surveyed, including Britain, where 60 percent said the world had become more dangerous since Saddam Hussein's removal from power in 2003.

Over the past year, support for the U.S.-led fight against terrorism also declined again, Pew found.

The latest declines came after a year in which anti-American sentiment had slightly receded, aided by good feeling over U.S. aid for tsunami victims and political progress in Iraq.

Many respondents distinguished between their largely negative feelings about President George W. Bush and their feelings about ordinary Americans. Majorities in 7 countries polled had favorable views of Americans, led by Japan, at 82 percent, and Britain, at 69.

But only in India and Nigeria did majorities express confidence in Bush. In Spain, just 1 in 14 respondents registered confidence in him, as did only 1 in 33 in Turkey, an important NATO ally.

After a tumultuous year in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the fight against terrorism is now backed by more than 50 percent only in Russia and India, while support has virtually collapsed in Japan, the poll found. In Spain, deeply affected by the March 2004 bombings in Madrid, a scant 2 in 10 people back the U.S.-led fight.

Pessimism about the future of Iraq was widespread. The polling, by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, was conducted in April and May this year - before the completion last week of the Iraqi government, or the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

All groups except Americans and Germans saw the U.S. presence in Iraq as posing a greater threat to world peace than the threat posed by Iran, which is pursuing a uranium enrichment program that the United States and other Western countries view as a prelude to developing its own nuclear weapons. Russians held that view by a 2-to-1 margin, and even the British did so by a narrow margin.

"Obviously, when you get many more people saying that the U.S. presence in Iraq is a threat to world peace as say that about Iran, it's a measure of how much Iraq is sapping good will to the United States," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.' Lees verder:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/13/news/pew1.php

De NRC kwalificeert onmiddellijk weer in een summier bericht: 'Het anti-Amerikanisme in de wereld neemt weer toe. Dat blijkt uit de jaarlijkse enquête van het Pew Research Center onder 16.710 burgers in vijftien landen.' Anti-Amerikanisme? Wat is dat? Een besmettelijke ziekte? Spreek uit: Anti-Nederlandisme, anti-Lichtensteinisme, Anti-Groot Brittannieisme etcetera! Anti-Amerikanisme heeft meteen een negatieve connotatie, alsof kritiek op de Amerikaanse buitenlandse politiek onterecht is omdat het een totale afwijzing van de Verenigde Staten zou zijn. Net zo'n verwerpelijke neiging als, ik noem maar wat, anti-semitisme. Dat kwalificeren door de Nederlandse pers is een nationale kwaal.