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| Europe |
| International Poll Shows U.S. As Global Threat and Arrogant to Boot |
| 2003-06-19 |
| From the AP Wire EFL LONDON -- A sampling of public opinion in 11 nations finds many see the United States as an arrogant superpower that poses a greater danger to world peace than North Korea. President George W. Bush failed to impress 58 percent of those questioned by pollsters for a British Broadcasting Corp. broadcast Tuesday night. They said they had a fairly unfavorable or very unfavorable view of the American president. If the American respondents were removed from the sample, the number rose to 60 percent. Hmmm ... maybe Terry McAuliffe of the DNC should petition to have the 2004 election moved to the UK ... or even France (Kerry would win big there). The poll questioned 11,000 people in May and June in 11 nations: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. Not all the news was bad for the United States. Even though 67 percent said they wouldn't want their countries to copy U.S. economic policies, ("we enjoy bleeding to death slowly from our moribund socialistic economies thank you very much) 67 percent would aspire to U.S. gains in science and technology, and 56 percent to the opportunities for advancement available to people in the United States. Forty percent aspired to U.S. freedom of expression. Sixty-five percent overall -- and a majority in every country, including the United States -- said America is arrogant. It's not easy being green. How would France poll on this question? Forty-seven percent said America is friendly, and 33 percent find the United States antagonistic. Fifty-six percent said the United States was wrong to attack Iraq. That number reached 81 percent in Russia and 63 percent in France, two nations that led world opposition to the war. Overall, 37 percent said the war was right -- 54 percent in Britain, 74 percent in the United States and 79 percent in Israel. The al-Qaida terrorist organization was ranked more dangerous than the United States, but the Americans were judged to be a greater threat than Russia, China, Syria and two members of Bush's Axis of Evil -- Iran and North Korea. In a studio panel of commentators, former British Cabinet member Clare Short, who quit her post to protest the invasion of Iraq, said post-Sept. 11 America was "a wounded giant, full of anger ... that feels it's got to exercise its power all over the world; I think that's becoming a frightening America." |
| Posted by:ColoradoConservative |
| #6 BBC cites poll saying Americans are bad, ugly, stupid, mean and smell bad. Yaawn... wasn't that yesterday's news...and the day before. I thought news was supposed to be news. |
| Posted by: Becky 2003-06-20 09:36:03 |
| #5 Oh the weenie wimps are "upset"? Well boo-hoo! About time the rest of the world thought about doing some heavy lifting instead of whining. I sleep safer at night knowing those arrogant Americans are on patrol. God Bless America. from Canada, |
| Posted by: john 2003-06-20 01:34:38 |
| #4 Well, we could always do a scientific experiment and let NKor start up a Sea of Fire demo and see what they think after that, or we can let Hookboy loose and say, "Go get 'em!" Then we can retake the poll. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-06-19 23:00:08 |
| #3 This is why there are 500,000 LEGAL immigrants into the U.S. every year. How many migrate to all of Europe? |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2003-06-19 20:54:07 |
| #2 There's two large groups of people that appear at every US embassy: the violent anti-American protestors and the lineup for visas. They switch off every other day. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-06-19 19:35:22 |
| #1 BBC cites poll saying Americans are bad, ugly, stupid, mean and smell bad. Yaawn... wasn't that yesterday's news...and the day before. I thought news was supposed to be news. |
| Posted by: Becky 6/20/2003 9:36:03 AM |