"Unprecedented" Anti-Americanism? 


Do the polls illustrate anything new in "world opinion"? 

I attended a lunch lecture and private talk last week given by Mehmet Ali Birand who is commonly known as "Mr CNN Türk"--he is almost indisputably Turkey's most widely revered journalist. He could, in my opinion, not be called Bush-friendly and often made comments to make his dislike of our president's policies (especially regarding the Iraq world) known--that's fine and he had been invited to express his opinions and his views.

When asked about Turkish public opinion on America and Bush, however, he was eager to differentiate the opinion of the Turkish elite--those involved in government, the media and the religious elite--from the popular opinion in the country. He pointed out that, how he sees it, popular opinion remains quite in favor, generally, of the US, mostly bolstered by the Bush administration's pushing of Europe to open talks with Turkey about EU ascension, not to mention their reverence of America's pop culture. To be sure, America's actions in Iraq were not popular there, but even the current (religious party) government had expected a "yes" vote in their parliament regarding the allowance of US troops in the lead-up to the war. Again, he cited what he even termed "the elite". This all came from a person who is said to have his finger on the pulse of Turkey, a Muslim nation.

I do not doubt that the reputation of America's government has been damaged by what I believe to be the common misconception that the war in Iraq was illegal (it was most definitely not illegal if one examines the UN SC resolutions), but I do reject the blanket claim of a friend of mine that the US "is now heartily disliked and mistrusted." To be sure, Mr Birand did say that he, personally, would never trust any words that come out of the Pentagon again, but, if you examine how the way in which US has been portrayed in poll after poll during the Cold War, you would also notice that its defensive actions and policies aimed at deterring the USSR from expanding its sphere of influence also produced much anti-Reagan/anti-American sentiment. I recall the mass protests in Western Europe during the Reagan years when America deployed its and NATO's strategic missile batteries in places like Germany. I am sure that many left-wingers may have a great dislike of Reagan's Cold War policies, but I do not, and I see them as being the catalyst that caused the Soviet Union to collapse.

To get to the bottom-line of my argument, America and her government have engendered good will from more of the world's people than is widely publicized by measures such as polls and surveys. I can speak of my own experience with Mr Birand and of my many trips throughout Europe (I have never been to France and so cannot speak for the French). I question the comprehensiveness of the polls that are done throughout the world regarding America. I do not fully doubt that the events during this Bush administration have certainly caused our government's reputation to be damaged, but I do not see it as anything new and as anything that is irreparable.

Even with reliable and comprehensive polls, I think of anti-American sentiment as almost a given in a world of envious and jealous human beings, most of whom have no reliable sources of information from which they can get their news; we in America have the entire world news service at our fingertips and not only the domestic sources which seem to be letting many of us down. But we still have the tools available to us to make informed decisions and from informed opinions in this way as others perhaps cannot.

But we have to deal with this reality and endeavor to empower more of the world's people to know of what they speak (even here at home, I might add). President Bush's policy of spreading freedom and democracy throughout the world--a policy which has begun and is making ripples throughout the Middle East, at least--seems like the best vessel through which both personal liberty and freedom of information can be obtained.

When the winner is always winning, the chorus of those who want to see him fail will grow. 

Posted: Mon - March 28, 2005 at 02:58 PM          

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