April 1, 2003
THE EU DOES AN ONLINE SURVEY (via Fainting in Coyles):
The Iraq Crisis -- 104,971 votes cast so far (European Union, 4/1/2003)
1. Rate these actors on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being very favorable and 10 being very unfavorable:
- The UN: 65.9% chose 1-5, 34.1% chose 6-10.
- The EU: 63% chose 1-5, 37% chose 6-10.
- Iraq: 40.3% chose 1-5, 59.7% chose 6-10.
- The United States: 26.5% chose 1-5, 73.5% chose 6-10 (55.9% chose 10!).
2. Do you think an attack on Iraq is justified?
- Yes, definitely: 2.4%
- Yes, but I am somewhat uncomfortable: 4.6%
- No, it is not necessary now: 35.4%
- No, definitely not: 57.6%
4. Do you think the U.S. will attack Iraq regardless of UN decisions and international law?
- Yes, 95%
7. Do you think the reason for the Iraq conflict is:
- A struggle for control over oil: very important 79%, important 15%
- The Israel-Palestinian conflict: very important 14.1%, important 37.6%
- The US desire to dominate the world: very important 58.7%, important 27.2%
- An action to remove WMD from Iraq: very important 8.7%, important 24.1%
- Regime change to remove Saddam from power: very important 31.1%, important 36%
- A clash between Christianity and Islam: very important 4.9%, important 15.3%
Apparently a majority of Europeans views the U.S. as unfavorably as possible, and believes the U.S. wants to dominate the world. If Europeans didn't prefer lounging on welfare to fighting, these results would be troubling.
MORE: Greek EU Presidency launches e-vote on immigration (EUObserver, 1/4/2003)
Posted by Paul Jaminet at April 1, 2003 10:05 PMWell, I do want American ideas to dominate
the world, and I feel strongly enough about
it to destroy our enemies, since we can.
Saw a picture today of an Abrams tank
on which some likeminded (but possibly
not as serious as me) person had chalked:
Today, Baghdad!
Tomorrow, Paris!
Am I the only one that sees things like this and instantly thinks "morons!" Oil? For God's sake, where have they been? I will be profoundly smug in 10 years when this will have panned out to be the absolute bunk that any rational person can see it for now. At that point, will they sit there and wonder "If not oil...then why?" If they still dismiss removing Saddam and WMD from Iraq, then they are completely hopeless.
Posted by: RC at April 2, 2003 1:56 AMI don't think it takes a lot of imagination to conclude that the left, anti-war crowd (and this cuts across all lines--European, American, Aussie, Kiwi, and yes, even Israeli) will respond precisely by becoming more radically anti-war, "pro-peace," anti-Bush, anti-American, and especially anti-Israeli.
Such a response (one reason why I found Naipaul's "Among the Believers" so interesting) would be similar to that of Moslems, who might conclude that the only possible reason why Allah refused to cause the Americans to be defeated is that Islam's adherents were not sufficiently devout; hence the only reasonable solution is to become more devoutly (which for many means more fundamentalist) Moslem.
A closed circle, to quote David Pryce-Jones.
And since the anti-war movement seems to be based more on a perverted kind of faith--and hatred---than on anything remotely resembling an assessment of reality, I wouldn't be surprised if they respond in kind.
Please note the URL:
">http://evote.eu2003.gr
gr = Greece. About as anti-USA as any state in the EU.
Good catch, Gideon. The Greeks have the Presidency of the EU right now, and are doing this vote as part of it. I've added a story.
Still, the votes probably come from across Europe. The e-Vote is prominently displayed on the EU's main page
.
Of course, self-selected online surveys are famously unrepresentative.
But America loves "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" ....they can't hate us!
Posted by: RC at April 3, 2003 1:41 AM