Re: America losing credibility in U.N., survey finds
- From: "Florida" <demeter547opine@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 13 Sep 2006 15:16:38 -0700
Sordo ? wrote:
Americans losing faith in U.N., survey finds
By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published September 12, 2006
NEW YORK -- Nearly three-quarters of the American people think the
United Nations is no longer effective and could support cutting U.S.
contributions to the world body, according to a poll released yesterday
by the conservative Hudson Institute.
Respondents were primarily concerned about corruption and
mismanagement, according to pollsters, who note that three years ago
oil-for-food and other scandals barely registered.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents agreed that "if the U.N. cannot
be reformed and made more effective, it should be scrapped" and
replaced. Thirty-eight percent disagreed.
Exactly half of those surveyed felt the world body undermines U.S.
national security interests, while 34 percent say it promotes them.
But disengagement does not seem to be on people's minds: 73 percent
said the United States should take a more active role in the United
Nations, because "it is the best way to influence world affairs." Some
24 percent disagreed.
Eight hundred people responded to the phone survey conducted by
Luntz Maslansky Strategic Research, a Virginia-based polling firm with
close ties to the Republican Party.
"When you find out that people are enriching [themselves] off your
hard-earned tax dollars, they won't stand for it," pollster Frank Luntz
told a handful of reporters yesterday.
"And when the institution refuses to fix itself? The response is
reform or die."
That is largely the message being delivered by the Bush
administration and its ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton.
Mr. Luntz said the poll was impartial despite his and the Hudson
Institute's affiliations.
He said that the United Nations must overcome its reputation for
corruption and mismanagement, and must take significant action to halt
Iran's presumed quest for nuclear weapons. He also counseled politicians
to take advantage of popular distaste.
"If they fail on Iran, the [U.S.] leader who says: 'Let's find an
alternative. If I'm elected president, we will leave the U.N.' will be
elected," Mr. Luntz predicted. "Someone should say, 'Not one more
dollar.'"
U.N. officials were not thrilled by the poll, but did not seem
overly concerned by its findings.
"We don't tell our story; we should be more -- we should kick back,"
said outgoing General Assembly President Jan Eliasson, who noted that
the United Nations takes on such difficult tasks as the Darfur region of
Sudan, the Middle East and other solution-defying conflicts.
In June, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown touched
off a firestorm when he told two left-leaning think tanks that the Bush
Administration is engaged in "stealth diplomacy" by working with the
organization on a number of issues, but rarely defending it against
critics.
The Hudson Institute survey, which included some September
11-related questions, found that 34 percent of respondents think Iran is
"the single greatest threat to world peace," followed by North Korea (15
percent), Iraq (11 percent), the United States (11 percent) and China (8
percent).
Copyright © 2006 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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