Commentary: Osama's global fan club
By Arnaud de Borchgrave
UPI Editor-at-Large
From the International Desk
Published 6/5/2003 5:55 PM
WASHINGTON, June 5 (UPI) -- Pew phew! The results of the Pew Foundation's Global Attitudes Project stunned the Bush Administration's Public Diplomacy bureaucrats. They have spent big bucks to spruce up America's image in the Arab and Muslim worlds, apparently to no avail. Osama Bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, now inspires more confidence than President Bush in Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco and among Palestinians. The war on Iraq seems to be the principal culprit.
The al-Qaida leader, who is responsible for the death of some 3,000 Americans on 9/11, received a strong vote of confidence -- as the man most trusted to do the right thing in world affairs -- in these four countries and in the occupied Palestinian territories with a combined population of 430 million.
Bush's nemesis, France's President Jacques Chirac, tied the U.N.'s Kofi Annan as the leader most trusted to do the right thing. Chirac's confrontation with Bush won him plaudits in many places. Britain's Tony Blair outpolled the U.S. President in the United States.
In Jordan, a friendly pro-Western country, 99% had an unfavorable opinion of the United States, up from 75% a year ago. Pro-Western Morocco voted overwhelmingly (92%) to say Israelis and Palestinians could not coexist as opposed to 67 of Americans who say they can.
The distrust of the U.S. was so high that majorities in seven of eight Muslim populations surveyed -- Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait ?- said they thought the U.S. could become a military threat to their countries. In Pakistan, 64% felt Islam was seriously threatened by the U.S. In Jordan, it was 97%, up from 80% a year ago.
The Pew Project surveyed 38,000 people in 44 nations last year and followed up after the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom with 16,000 people in 20 nations and in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. The war clearly produced larger percentages of anti-American answers.
One of the most disturbing shifts in public opinion was apparent in Turkey, a long-time pro-American ally. Responding to anti-American sentiment generated by U.S. war preparations against Iraq, the Turkish parliament voted against letting U.S. troops traverse its soil to open a northern front against Saddam Hussein. Now 83% of Turks have a negative opinion of the U.S. (versus 55% a year ago).
Spain, one of the few countries to join Bush's coalition of the willing against Iraq, produced only 38% with positive feelings about the U.S. But two other members of the coalition -- Italy (77%) and Britain (80%) -- gave Bush a ringing endorsement.
The silver lining came in answers to questions about democratic pluralism, which a slim majority of Muslims seem to favor -- except Indonesia. The lightning rod was more frequently president Bush the man than the U.S. or Americans.
The U.N. also took its lumps. Not a single country surveyed believes the U.N. still plays an important role in dealing with international conflicts.
Support for America's war on terror dropped in France and Germany by identical margins (from 75% to 60%). Both sides of the Atlantic seemed to favor an easing of the security bonds that have linked them within NATO. Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State who chaired the Pew Project, said, "For those of us who care about NATO, this is a red flag. The only way to get beyond this is to find more ways we can work together in NATO...it can't be relevant if you don't work at it."
Bush's Mideast peace initiative hopefully will alter negative perceptions for the better. But there is much ground to make up. No one believes the U.S. can be even-handed between Israel and the Palestinians. Muslim populations surveyed see U.S. policies as destabilizing the Middle East, as do majorities in most other countries polled.
Public diplomacy became a top priority after 9/11. The Bush Administration pledged to dispel the grotesque distorting mirror image Muslims have of America and Americans. Countless millions of Muslims believed the canard that 9/11 was a plot engineered by the CIA and Israel's Mossad. They still do.
The war on Iraq ?- following the war on Afghanistan -- was further evidence to Muslim militants that the U.S. is determined to eradicate Islam. The fact that Pew has elicited more anti-Americanism in the Arab and Muslim worlds today than before 9/11 would seem to indicate that the Administration's much vaunted "innovative ideas" about public diplomacy have been a dismal and costly failure.
The State Department is spending over $1 billion a year on challenging anti-American views, particularly in the Muslim world. Radio Sawa that reaches across the Middle East is aimed at Arab listeners under 30. They like the music but evidently ignore the administration's commercials.
It's back to the drawing board for the spin doctors.
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