Opposites....Ah....So.....
Posted on 12/20/2001 5:35:12 PM PST by LS
Opinion leaders around the world believe that the events of Sept. 11 opened a new chapter in world history, but their views about the United States and its struggle with terrorism reflect a more familiar love-hate relationship with America. Influentials in much of the world, except for Western Europe, see mixed public attitudes toward the war on terrorism. For example, while popular support is reported in most regions of the world, the U.S. is still seen as overreacting to the terrorist attacks. More important, a huge gulf of disagreement exists between American elites and opinion leaders in other parts of the world about the causes of terrorism and the sources of resentment and respect for the U.S.
[My summary from here: click on the link above for the full study]:
Opinion leaders say U.S. policies are a "principal" cause of the Sept. 11 attack, and most people in these countries think "it is good that Americans know what it is like to be vulnerable."
There is little backing for extending the war to Iraq or Somalia, even if it is shown that these countries have supported terrorism among 275 political, media, cultural, business, and government leaders in 24 countries.
A shocking half of the "influentials in Islamic countries think the U.S. is doing the right thing in fighting terrorism. When speaking for themselves, even Islamic opinion leaders say the war against terrorism is worth the risk of destabilizing Muslim states that support the anti-terror coalition!
Two-thirds of the opinion leaders have a "favorable view" of the U.S., except in the Middle East where the favorable # drops to half. [My comment: that is still an incredibly good number, given Al-Jazeera].
American support of ISRAEL IS NOT, I repeat, NOT shown to be a problem in most parts of the world, and even in some Muslim states such as Egypt, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
"While American opinion leaders think the U.S. is liked for its good works around the world, fewer than one in four leaders in all other regions agree."
What U.S. influentials underestimate is the importance of the nation's role as a technological and scientific leader in bolstering America's image overseas. TWO-THIRDS of foreign leaders rate this as a MAJOR REASON WHY PEOPLE LIKE THE U.S. [My translation: these people respect power, and when you show yourself to be powerful, they like you. When you show yourself to be "nice" they think you are being dishonest.]
The growing power of multinationals is NOT, repeat, NOT viewed as a leading factor in dislike of the U.S. except in (guess where?) Western Europe.
This (to me, stunning) survey says that other nations resent us for doing what everyone knows must be done, and they resent us because they do not have the will or courage to do it.
They also love us because we are powerful, advanced, and wealthy. They almost unanimously see us as the land of opportunity. The emphasis on U.S. ties to Israel as a source of problems exists, but is way overstated here.
This fully supports a piece posted earlier this week (or last week) on FR that Muslim nations respect us now for our use of force, as opposed to the weak actions of the Clinton administration. (Does someone want to link that article? Was it Jacoby?)
These findings are based on 275 interviews with influential people in politics, media, business, culture and government conducted by the Pew Research Center...
Politicians, media types, culture vultures, and government parasites.
Sooner or later the world will figure out that Clinton was a fluke and not a signal trend. Once that happens, the world will issue a collective sigh of relief.
Opposites....Ah....So.....
My post does not dispute the Pew people's characterization of the pollees as "opinion leaders."
It merely points out who these "opinion leaders" --who were the sole subjects of the poll-- are.
I think, were we to abandon Israel as some people seem to want us to here in the states, I believe that many nations would lose respect for us....because if we do that to our allies, what else might we do? They don't have to like us, but they sure as hell better respect us!
To hades with those that hate what we do for them, including feeding their starving citizens or importing thousands more as useful "low-paid workers" and let's not forget the wealthy grad school kiddies and the anxious-to-learn flight school students!
ALL "Non-allied" nations, Peoples, "groups," "clubs," "political groupings," "Tribes," & "Religions" should FEAR US!!
The unspoken "understanding" of "Non-Americans" around the Earth ought to be that one NEVER attacks--or even threatens--an American; the consequences of such a foolish action are invariably swift, deadly, devastating, & humiliating!!
Doc
More than that, it's only 250 people!!! Not even random, but selected Leaders--what, they call up the Pres. of Egypt, and ask, Sir, we would like to ask some questions???
Figures it would show up on NPR, tailor made for confirming prejudices with smoke and mirrors of science. But not even much smoke this time. A joke. What cultural "leaders", post-modern University professors?
At least there is the opportunity here for that headline to become reality. Here is the most important part of the article:
Yet, barely more than half of non-Americans listed resentment of U.S. power as a major reason for disliking the country, and only 3 in 10 cited U.S. support of Israel. Far more salient, in non-American eyes, was the sense that the United States bears some responsibility for the gap between the world's rich and poor, and that the world's wealthiest country does too little to help the least-advantaged. . Six in 10 respondents in both Western Europe and the Middle East called that a major cause for dislike of the United States. . Americans saw that as a problem, but less so: Only 4 in 10 listed it. . "There's a big gap in this issue of whether we Americans are contributing to the economic polarization of the planet," Mr. Kohut said. "We see ourselves as doing good works, and working on behalf of global issues, and the rest of the world doesn't see it that way." . Mrs. Albright said, "There's a sense that we have all these things-wealth, opportunity, technological prowess-but we basically don't share."
What a great opportunity to open the eyes of some of the sheeple. The simple socialistic class-warfare mantra can now put them, too, in the role of the evil rich, a role they would never place themselves in their wildest dreams. But on top of that, their own security as an American is threatened, giving reason to actually think through the ramifications of the rhetoric.
Our job is to tie the rise of this class envy of America directly to the Democrat's repeated shouting of this theme, their attempts to export it throughout the world, and the role of the UN. Put the blame squarely on the Democrats, for fueling discontent and hatred of America, for focusing on the diffences, and downplaying the positive we do for the world. Repeatedly point out the negative anti-American, class warfare themes of the Democrats. I think there is a public relations goldmine here for the GOP waiting to be tapped.
"You've got THAT right!"
Doc
The stupid thing for these people is that they don't realize that we are way to powerful to be truly vulnerable. The depth of our resources and wealth of ability makes us virtually invulnerable. To really get to us you would need to do much much more than drop some of our buildings and kill some of our citizens.
When you get us p!ssed off like OBL and whoever else did, you will feel how strong we are. I hope some of these idiots don't take this too seriously and try something else or they might just get some seasonal gifts like the Taliban and El Quada did... and we did it all from the air. No Abrams tanks on their soil, no A-10's, no Apaches, hunting them down.
So a word of advice. Don't wake the sleepy guy in the stars and strips the wrong way. He is real grouchy if he has to get up when he doesn't want to. He can see where you are night or day, he can hear all you say on any type of modern communications, will freeze your assests, he will destroy anything you have that moves, he will leave you barely above the level of stoneage.
Now how vulnerable was that?
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