Survey shows growing doubts about U.S. Policies Abroad by PBS: Online News Hour / ABC News 3:54pm 17th Mar, 2004   March 16, 2004,    Anti-American sentiment is growing in several European nations a year after the war in Iraq began and more Europeans are starting to believe their countries should have policies independent of the United States, according to a survey released Tuesday by the independent Pew Global Attitudes Project.    Great Britain, France and Germany, which all gave high marks for U.S. policies in the summer of 2002, recorded a precipitous drop in how they viewed the United States in March 2003 -- the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Attitudes rebounded somewhat in May 2003 at the end of major combat, and then dropped again, particularly in Great Britain's case, the survey found.    In the predominantly Muslim countries of Turkey, Pakistan and Jordan, however, the generally unfavorable view of the United States eased somewhat since May 2003, though the vast majority still viewed American policies in a highly unfavorable way.    Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, said the discontent with U.S. policies in the European countries shows a lack of fence-mending between the two sides.    The more negative European views of the United States suggests they may not be based on a dustup over one policy -- Iraq -- but an indication of a continuing rift between the United States and Europe, he said.    The research shows there is a general sense in the European nations that when the United States makes policies, it doesn't take into account the interests of other countries, Kohut said.    There also is a growing sentiment that Western Europe should become more independent of the United States, according to survey-takers in France (75 percent), Germany (63 percent), Turkey (60 percent), and Britain and Russia (56 percent). But 55 percent of those surveyed in the United States said the U.S. partnership with Western Europe should remain as close as it's been.    A majority of those surveyed expressed support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism, including Russia at 73 percent -- nearly as high as the United States at 81 percent. Sixty-three percent of Britons approved, along with 55 percent of Germans. Half of those questioned in France said they favor the war on terror.    The approval rating was far lower in the Muslim countries: Turkey (37 percent), Morocco (28 percent), Pakistan (16 percent) and Jordan (12 percent).    A majority of those surveyed in the region said they believe the true motivations behind the U.S. war on terrorism are to control Mideast oil and to dominate the world, according to the survey. Other reasons cited were to target unfriendly Muslim governments and protect Israel.    Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi whose al-Qaida terrorist network took responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, enjoyed a favorable rating of 65 percent in Pakistan, 55 percent in Jordan and 45 percent in Morocco. The numbers are much lower in Turkey (11 percent) and in single digits in other countries.    President Bush enjoys a 61 percent favorable rating in the United States, but 39 percent in Britain, 28 percent in Russia, 15 percent in France, 14 percent in Germany, and less in Pakistan, Jordan and Morocco.    British Prime Minister Tony Blair's approval rating, meanwhile, soared in the United States at 75 percent, but ranks at 51 percent in Britain, and hovers around 35 percent in France, Germany and Russia.    Most respondents said they felt U.S. and British leaders lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, rather than were misinformed, including 82 percent in France, 69 percent in Germany and Jordan, 66 percent in Turkey, and 61 percent in Russia and Pakistan, compared to 41 percent in Britain and 31 percent in the United States.    As for how long it will take to create a stable government in Iraq, the majority of all polled said it would take more than a year. In Western Europe and Turkey, most said the United Nations should lead the effort rather than the United States. Americans were divided.    The survey was conducted from late February to early March under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. At least 1,000 adults were polled in the United States, Jordan, Russia, Turkey, Morocco and Pakistan, with an error rate of plus or minus 3.5 percent. At least 500 adults participated in Great Britain, France and Germany with an error rate of plus or minus 5 percent.    -- Online NewsHour    18 March , 2004     "Global discontent with America has intensified".    (ABC News Online: The World Today - Reporter: Nick Grimm)    HAMISH ROBERTSON: An international survey of attitudes towards the United States has revealed that in the year since the war began in Iraq, discontent with America has intensified globally.    The Washington-based Pew Research Centre surveyed people in countries across Europe and the Middle East, as well as in the United States itself. It found that the war in Iraq has undermined America's credibility abroad. Even a nation which supported the war, Britain, has registered a dramatic hardening in attitudes towards the United States. Nick Grimm has been speaking to Nicole Speulda, Director of the Global Attitudes Project at the Pew Research Centre.    NICOLE SPEULDA: A theme of this particular survey was Iraq one year later. We asked about favourability ratings toward the US and toward the world leaders. We asked how people felt about the war on terrorism, how it was going and also about how things are going in Iraq.    NICK GRIMM: Okay, you've reached the conclusion that a year after the war in Iraq, discontent with America and its policies has intensified, rather than diminished. Now what tells you that?    NICOLE SPEULDA: We asked a series of questions: one, just the normal US favourability rating has not gone back up at all, in fact people have very negative views of the United States.    People continue to believe that the United States does not take their country into consideration when making foreign policy and the European Union countries, basically the ones we have in this poll – Britain, France and Germany – say that they want an independent foreign policy and that the European Union needs to be stronger to act as a counter-force to the United States.    We haven't seen such distinct contrast between these countries, our allies so to speak, since our polling began.    NICK GRIMM: So broadly speaking over the past year since the war in Iraq was conducted, we can say that US foreign policy hasn't won itself many friends?    NICOLE SPEULDA: That's very correct. We have a trend on this: whether or not your country made the right or the wrong decision to either use military force against Iraq, which we asked in Britain, or to not use military force and in the countries that stayed out of the war – in France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan and Morrocco – they overwhelmingly say that their country made the right decision not to go to war and these are numbers that have gone up.    But in Great Britain that number has gone down, that number fell. Since May of last year, it was at 61 per cent, that they made the right decision. That currently stands at 43 per cent.    NICK GRIMM: So that would seem to argue against the premise that by speaking to countries that oppose the war in Iraq you've achieved a result which has been loaded against the United States, if that's the results in Britain which of course was part of the Coalition of the Willing.    NICOLE SPEULDA: That's just a big shift in opinion that we have never seen before. Britain usually has very stable numbers concerning the United States always, so it's quite telling.    NICK GRIMM: And what about the Middle Eastern countries which you surveyed?    NICOLE SPEULDA: In the predominantly Muslim countries we basically find that there is a lot of anger toward the US, although it's sort of eased up a bit and support for the war on terrorism has actually gone up a few points.    There are some disturbing results. Osama Bin Laden is viewed very favourably by very large percentages of people in certain countries like Pakistan, Jordan and Morocco and many people are saying that suicide bombing attacks against Americans and westerners in Iraq can be justified.    We have asked before, on similar surveys, in 2002 for example we asked a broader range of Muslim countries about suicide bombings in general to defend Islam and that number has gone up in those countries as well, saying it is justifiable. So those results are pretty disturbing.    March 23, 2004 (Reuters)    The former chief United States weapons inspector in Iraq has warned that the US is in "grave danger" of destroying its credibility at home and abroad if it does not own up to its mistakes in Iraq.    In a speech at Harvard University's John F Kennedy School of Government, former inspector David Kay said: "The cost of our mistakes ... with regard to the explanation of why we went to war in Iraq are far greater than Iraq itself.    "We are in grave danger of having destroyed our credibility internationally and domestically with regard to warning about future events," he said.    "The answer is to admit you were wrong and what I find most disturbing around Washington ... is the belief ... you can never admit you're wrong."    Mr Kay's comments come as the White House seeks to fend off accusations from its former anti-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke.    Mr Clarke said President George W Bush ignored the Al Qaeda threat before the September 11 attacks and focused on Iraq rather than the Islamic militant group afterwards.    The White House last year cited Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as the main reason for going to war.    Mr Kay resigned from his post in January, saying he believed no such arms existed and that the failure to find any such weapons raised serious questions about the quality of pre-war intelligence.    Mr Kay, who was part of United Nations weapons probes in Iraq in the early 1990s, said US intelligence there was poor in the decade before the war, relying entirely on international inspectors themselves, Iraqi defectors or intelligence from allies like France and Britain.    He cautioned the intelligence community against jumping to premature conclusions, as it did in Iraq.    "One of the most dangerous things abroad in the world of intelligence today actually came out of 9/11...the insistence of 'Why didn't you connect the dots?' The dots were all there," he said.    "When we finally do the sums on Iraq, what will turn out is that we simply didn't know what was going on, but we connected the dots - the dots from 1991 behaviour were connected with 2000 behaviour and 2003 behaviour, and it became an explanation and a picture of Iraq that simply didn't exist," Mr Kay said.    -- Reuters Visit the related web page
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