July 27, 2005
WITH EVERY BOMB THEY LOSE:
Our extreme makeover: Favorable impressions of the U.S. are being detected around the world, including inside Muslim countries. (Max Boot, July 27, 2005, LA Times)
The public opinion poll was conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, hardly a bastion of neocon zealotry. (It's co-chaired by Madeleine Albright.) Over the last three years, Pew surveys have charted surging anti-Americanism in response to the invasion of Iraq and other actions of the Bush administration. But its most recent poll — conducted in May, with 17,000 respondents in 17 countries — also found evidence that widespread antipathy is abating.The percentage of people holding a favorable impression of the United States increased in Indonesia (+23 points), Lebanon (+15), Pakistan (+2) and Jordan (+16). It also went up in such non-Muslim nations as France, Germany, Russia and India.
What accounts for this shift? The answer varies by country, but analysts point to waning public anger over the invasion of Iraq, gratitude for the massive U.S. tsunami relief effort and growing conviction that the U.S. is serious about promoting democracy.
There is also increasing aversion to America's enemies, even in the Islamic world. The Pew poll found that "nearly three-quarters of Moroccans and roughly half of those in Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia see Islamic extremism as a threat to their countries."
Support for suicide bombing has declined dramatically in all the Muslim countries surveyed except Jordan, with its large anti-Israeli Palestinian population. The number of those saying that "violence against civilian targets is sometimes or often justified" has dropped by big margins in Lebanon (-34 points) and Indonesia (-12) since 2002, and in the last year in Pakistan (-16) and Morocco (-27).
This has been accompanied by a cratering of support for Osama bin Laden everywhere except (unfortunately) Pakistan and Jordan. Since 2003, approval ratings for the world's No. 1 terrorist have slid in Indonesia (-23 points), Morocco (-23), Turkey (-8) and Lebanon (-12).
What accounts for this decline? Primarily the actions of the terrorists themselves.
If the American Press and Left took this long to figure out that the President was serious about the WoT being primarily about liberalization and democracy, why should the masses in foreign countries have grasped it any quicker? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 27, 2005 9:07 AM
"violence against civilian targets is sometimes or often justified" has dropped by big margins in Lebanon (-34 points)
Sad how it sometimes seems to take actually being bombed for people to realize the problem with acts of terrorism against civilians.
Posted by: John Thacker at July 27, 2005 10:46 AMCan't you feel the love? My only explanation is the new "Teach the World to Chill" Coke commercial.
"The latest nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted among 2,000 adults between July 7, the day of the first terrorist attacks in London, and July 17, finds a majority of Americans (55%) saying they have a favorable opinion of Muslim-Americans. That is roughly the same proportion that expressed positive opinions of Muslim-Americans in Pew surveys conducted in July 2003 and March 2002, and significantly higher than the 45% holding favorable views in March 2001, prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Most striking in the wake of the terrorist attacks in London is that the number of Americans saying that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence has fallen significantly to 36% in the current survey from 44% two years ago."
http://pewforum.org/docs/index.php?DocID=89
Posted by: Rick T. at July 27, 2005 10:57 AMUndoubtedly this will be trumpted across multiple days and multiple shows of NPR coverage, just like the previous surveys.
I suppose this means that the right has to wander around lost, mumbling, "Why do they love us?"
Posted by: David Cohen at July 27, 2005 11:27 AMDavid:
Interesting to note that the survey I quoted WAS the subject of an NPR story this morning. The one that OJ quotes was not. Interesting but not surprising.
Posted by: Rick T. at July 27, 2005 12:25 PM