A new survey of global opinion reveals strong negative feelings toward U.S. foreign policy, even as an average of 61 percent of those polled have at least some confidence in President Barack Obama to make sound decisions.
The poll, from WorldPublicOpinion.org, a project of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), found that people perceive the U.S. as hypocritical regarding international law and believe it treats their nations unfairly.
Fifteen countries said the U.S. abuses its power and is coercive, while overwhelming majorities in all 19 countries surveyed thought that the U.S. throws its military weight around to gain advantage.
The negative views of the U.S. and paradoxical confidence in Obama represent the dual faces of the U.S., said PIPA director Steven Kull.
”America has these two faces. One is the cooperative , restrained, rule-of-law-oriented power,” he told IPS. ”And the other is one of a more traditional state that does what it can to achieve its interests, and because it has more power, it uses it unconcerned about questions of reciprocity and fairness.”
”People see both of them, and they kind of wax and wane depending on what the U.S. does,” Kull added. ”The cooperative one is waxing at the moment, but the other one still exists.”
That's why, says Kull, ”Even though people like Obama, you don't see a quantum shift in opinions of how the U.S. is perceived. |
- Thank you America for chewing gum, coca cola, Donald Duck, Superman, MacDonald's fine food, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the atom bomb, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the military-industrial complex, Mash, Homeland Security,
- and all the other uplifting cultural activities that the rest of the world could not do without.
- The Whole world loves America, right?............................................................................................................................................................
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