Re: Bush creates hatred of America

LOL. at least you've got a sense of humor.

bob

"Hazelwood's Ghost" <the_big_kahuna@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:82nu82h65np3ea6m5nmgu4ilrrkm19p074@xxxxxxxxxx
Image of U.S. falls again
By Brian Knowlton International Herald Tribune

Published: 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.

But as leading powers seek ways to contain the Iranian nuclear
program, the poll found strong majorities in Western Europe, Japan,
and India sharing underlying U.S. concerns. The percentage of people
in Britain, France, and Spain who view Tehran as a threat has roughly
tripled in three years.

Pew surveyed 16,710 people in Britain, China, Egypt, France, Germany,
India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Spain,
Turkey, and the United States. The polling was conducted from March 31
to May 14.

The success in Palestinian elections of Hamas, which the United States
and the European Union consider a terrorist group, raised concerns.
For the first time, Germans said that they sympathized with Israel
more than with the Palestinians. Support for Israel rose in France, as
well. But in Muslim countries, large majorities supported Hamas's
victory.

The poll found people in most of the 15 countries unhappy with
national conditions. But in China, amid continued vigorous economic
growth, a striking 8 in 10 people said that they were satisfied with
the way things were going. Slim majorities in Egypt, Jordan and Spain
also expressed satisfaction.

After a year of immigrant riots and job protests in France, people in
every country but one - the United States - said that they held dimmer
views of the French. The number of Americans favorably impressed by
France rose to 52 percent, up from 29 percent in 2003, when the French
angered Americans by refusing to back the Bush administration's
decision to go to war in Iraq.

There was considerable agreement on Iran. More than 9 in 10 Americans,
Germans, Japanese and French opposed Iran acquiring nuclear arms.

By sizable margins, they deemed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
untrustworthy, and said that if Tehran had nuclear weapons it would be
likely to share them with terrorists and to attack Israel. Only 1 in
25 Spanish respondents expressed a lot or some confidence in the
Iranian leader.

The picture was different in Muslim countries: Pakistanis, who take
great pride in their own nuclear program, narrowly favored Iran
obtaining nuclear weapons, and more than 40 percent in Egypt and
Jordan agreed. Muslim publics believed that Iran would use a nuclear
weapon for defensive purposes.

In other areas, too, regional differences emerged. The Japanese were
more than twice as likely to see North Korea as a threat as they were
Iran. But in China, which shares a border and economic ties with North
Korea, only 1 in 10 saw Pyongyang as a threat.

Despite the toll taken by the Iraq war, Americans appeared to be
paying less attention than others around the world to controversies
the war has engendered.

While 3 in 4 Americans said they had heard reports of abuses at Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq and at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, substantially more West Europeans and Japanese - 9 in 10 - had
heard about them.

Awareness of global warming was uniformly high in the industrialized
countries, but concern about its effects was sharpest in Japan and
India, with two-thirds of those polled in both countries expressing
great concern. Awareness was lowest in the countries that are the
greatest emitters of the greenhouse gases linked to warming - China
and the United States - and only 2 in 10 people in those countries
said they were very concerned about the problem.

Awareness of bird flu was nearly universal. The greatest alarm over
the spread of the disease was in Asia, where the avian epidemic began,
and in Africa. Only one American in 10 was very worried, and European
levels were similarly low.

Americans' views of several other countries have improved, perhaps
influenced by efforts at reconciliation between the United States and
some of its Iraq war critics, and by increased cooperation on issues
including Iran and North Korea.

"It runs counter to this notion that we've become xenophobic," Kohut
said.

While ancient wartime grievances still reverberate between China and
Japan, darkening each side's views of the other, two other historical
foes, France and Germany, have highly favorable feelings toward each
other.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, enjoys very high approval
ratings not just at home - where 8 in 10 Germans support her - but in
France, where nearly as many French do so.

And in a phenomenon troubling to Bush and his Republican supporters,
war worries and high gasoline prices appear to be weighing on
Americans' satisfaction ratings, even as many economic indicators have
risen. While half of Americans expressed satisfaction with conditions
at home in 2003, only 29 percent did so this year.

The Pew survey's margin of error was 2 to 4 percent in every country
but Britain and Germany, where it was 6 percent. Kohut said the 6
percent margin, while high, was still valid in so broad a comparative
survey.


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.

But as leading powers seek ways to contain the Iranian nuclear
program, the poll found strong majorities in Western Europe, Japan,
and India sharing underlying U.S. concerns. The percentage of people
in Britain, France, and Spain who view Tehran as a threat has roughly
tripled in three years.

Pew surveyed 16,710 people in Britain, China, Egypt, France, Germany,
India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Spain,
Turkey, and the United States. The polling was conducted from March 31
to May 14.

The success in Palestinian elections of Hamas, which the United States
and the European Union consider a terrorist group, raised concerns.
For the first time, Germans said that they sympathized with Israel
more than with the Palestinians. Support for Israel rose in France, as
well. But in Muslim countries, large majorities supported Hamas's
victory.

The poll found people in most of the 15 countries unhappy with
national conditions. But in China, amid continued vigorous economic
growth, a striking 8 in 10 people said that they were satisfied with
the way things were going. Slim majorities in Egypt, Jordan and Spain
also expressed satisfaction.

After a year of immigrant riots and job protests in France, people in
every country but one - the United States - said that they held dimmer
views of the French. The number of Americans favorably impressed by
France rose to 52 percent, up from 29 percent in 2003, when the French
angered Americans by refusing to back the Bush administration's
decision to go to war in Iraq.

There was considerable agreement on Iran. More than 9 in 10 Americans,
Germans, Japanese and French opposed Iran acquiring nuclear arms.

By sizable margins, they deemed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
untrustworthy, and said that if Tehran had nuclear weapons it would be
likely to share them with terrorists and to attack Israel. Only 1 in
25 Spanish respondents expressed a lot or some confidence in the
Iranian leader.

The picture was different in Muslim countries: Pakistanis, who take
great pride in their own nuclear program, narrowly favored Iran
obtaining nuclear weapons, and more than 40 percent in Egypt and
Jordan agreed. Muslim publics believed that Iran would use a nuclear
weapon for defensive purposes.

In other areas, too, regional differences emerged. The Japanese were
more than twice as likely to see North Korea as a threat as they were
Iran. But in China, which shares a border and economic ties with North
Korea, only 1 in 10 saw Pyongyang as a threat.

Despite the toll taken by the Iraq war, Americans appeared to be
paying less attention than others around the world to controversies
the war has engendered.

While 3 in 4 Americans said they had heard reports of abuses at Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq and at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, substantially more West Europeans and Japanese - 9 in 10 - had
heard about them.

Awareness of global warming was uniformly high in the industrialized
countries, but concern about its effects was sharpest in Japan and
India, with two-thirds of those polled in both countries expressing
great concern. Awareness was lowest in the countries that are the
greatest emitters of the greenhouse gases linked to warming - China
and the United States - and only 2 in 10 people in those countries
said they were very concerned about the problem.

Awareness of bird flu was nearly universal. The greatest alarm over
the spread of the disease was in Asia, where the avian epidemic began,
and in Africa. Only one American in 10 was very worried, and European
levels were similarly low.

Americans' views of several other countries have improved, perhaps
influenced by efforts at reconciliation between the United States and
some of its Iraq war critics, and by increased cooperation on issues
including Iran and North Korea.

"It runs counter to this notion that we've become xenophobic," Kohut
said.

While ancient wartime grievances still reverberate between China and
Japan, darkening each side's views of the other, two other historical
foes, France and Germany, have highly favorable feelings toward each
other.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, enjoys very high approval
ratings not just at home - where 8 in 10 Germans support her - but in
France, where nearly as many French do so.

And in a phenomenon troubling to Bush and his Republican supporters,
war worries and high gasoline prices appear to be weighing on
Americans' satisfaction ratings, even as many economic indicators have
risen. While half of Americans expressed satisfaction with conditions
at home in 2003, only 29 percent did so this year.

The Pew survey's margin of error was 2 to 4 percent in every country
but Britain and Germany, where it was 6 percent. Kohut said the 6
percent margin, while high, was still valid in so broad a comparative
survey.


.

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