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America-bashing has gone far enough
By Khalaf Al Habtoor, Special to Gulf NewsYou can't tune in to an Arabic channel nowadays without coming across analysts, former politicians and ex-generals moaning and groaning about America and the West. Their views almost always paint the Middle East as a terminal victim of neo-imperialism, corporate greed and raw aggression. In the world of the professional pundit we are always the innocent bystanders. The conflicts besetting this region are not of our making, they say. Everything is America's fault. Few ever come up with viable solutions. To be fair the US government deserves much of the anger directed towards it for its ill-thought out Mideast policy. A recent BBC poll that sought the opinions of 26,000 people in 25 countries indicates 49 per cent feel the US plays a mainly negative role in today's world. Surprisingly, attitudes in Germany, France and Indonesia were least favourable. But here's an interesting snippet. Some 57 per cent of Americans disapprove of the way their government handled the Iraq war. Okay. So we know that Washington has blundered over Iraq but this shouldn't mean that everything America and its allies propose is automatically perceived as negative. Posted by: Steve White 2007-02-05 |
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