World's Image of U.S. Slips Further, Survey Shows

June 13th, 2006 7:15 pmWorld's Image of U.S. Slips Further, Survey Shows
By Brian Knowlton / International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON, June 13 — As the war in Iraq continues for a fourth year, the global image of America has slipped further, even among people in countries closely allied with the United States, a new global opinion poll has found.

Favorable views of the United States dropped sharply over the past year in Spain, where only 23 percent now say they have a positive opinion, down from 41 percent in 2005, according to the survey, which was carried out in 15 nations this spring by the Pew Research Center.

In Britain, Washington's closest ally in the Iraq war, positive views of America have remained in the mid-50's in the past two years, down sharply from 75 percent in 2002.

Other countries where positive views dropped significantly include India (56 percent, down from 71 percent since 2005); Russia (43 percent, down from 52 percent); and Indonesia (30 percent, down from 38 percent). In Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, only 12 percent said they held a favorable opinion, down from 23 percent last year.

Declines were less steep in France, Germany and Jordan, while people in China and Pakistan had a slightly more favorable image of the United States this year than last.

The ebbing of positive views of the United States coincides with a spike in feeling that the war in Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place. This perception was shared by majorities in 10 of the countries surveyed, including Britain, where 60 percent said the world had become more dangerous since Saddam Hussein's removal from power in 2003.

Over the past year, support for the American-led fight against terrorism also declined again, Pew found.

The latest declines came after a year in which anti-American sentiment had receded slightly, as feelings were bolstered by United States aid for tsunami victims and some signs of political progress in Iraq.

Many respondents distinguished between their largely negative feelings about President Bush and their feelings about ordinary Americans. Majorities in seven countries polled had favorable views of Americans, led by Japan, at 82 percent, and Britain, at 69 percent.

But only in India and Nigeria did majorities express confidence in Mr. Bush. In Spain, just 1 in 14 respondents registered confidence in him, as did only 1 in 33 in Turkey, an important NATO ally.

After a tumultuous year in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the fight against terrorism is now backed by majorities only in Russia and India, while support has virtually collapsed in Japan, the poll found. In Spain, deeply affected by the March 2004 bombings in Madrid, a scant 2 in 10 people back the American-led fight.

Pessimism about the future of Iraq was widespread. The polling, by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, was conducted in April and May this year — before the completion last week of the new Iraqi government or the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

All groups except Americans and Germans saw the United States presence in Iraq as posing a greater threat to world peace than the threat posed by Iran, which is pursuing a uranium enrichment program that the United States and other Western countries view as a prelude to developing its own nuclear weapons. Russians held that view by a 2-to-1 margin, and even the British did so by a narrow margin.

"Obviously, when you get many more people saying that the U.S. presence in Iraq is a threat to world peace as say that about Iran, it's a measure of how much Iraq is sapping good will to the United States," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.

But as the United States and five other leading countries seek ways to contain the Iranian nuclear program, the poll found strong majorities in Western Europe, Japan, and India sharing underlying American concerns. The percentage of people in Britain, France, and Spain who view Tehran as a threat has roughly tripled in three years.

Pew surveyed 16,710 people in Britain, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and the United States. The polling was conducted from March 31 to May 14.

The Palestinian election victory of Hamas, which the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist group, raised concerns. For the first time, Germans said they sympathized with Israel more than with the Palestinians. Support for Israel rose in France, as well. But in Muslim countries, large majorities supported Hamas's victory.

The poll found people in most of the 15 countries unhappy with national conditions. But in China, amid continued vigorous economic growth, a striking 8 in 10 people said that they were satisfied with the way things were going. Slim majorities in Egypt, Jordan and Spain also expressed satisfaction.

After a year of immigrant riots and job protests in France, people in every country but one — the United States — said that they held dimmer views of the French. The number of Americans favorably impressed by France rose to 52 percent, up from 29 percent in 2003, when the French angered Americans by refusing to back the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq.

Americans' views of several other countries have also improved, perhaps influenced by efforts at reconciliation between the United States and some of its Iraq war critics and by increased cooperation on issues including Iran and North Korea.

"It runs counter to this notion that we've become xenophobic," Mr. Kohut said.

The survey showed considerable agreement on Iran. More than 9 in 10 Americans, Germans, Japanese and French opposed Iran acquiring nuclear arms.

By sizable margins, they deemed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to be untrustworthy and said that if Tehran had nuclear weapons it would be likely to share them with terrorists and to attack Israel. Only 1 in 25 Spanish respondents expressed considerable or some confidence in the Iranian leader.

The picture was different in Muslim countries: Pakistanis, who take great pride in their own nuclear program, narrowly favored letting Iran obtain nuclear weapons, and more than 40 percent in Egypt and Jordan agreed. Muslim publics believed that Iran would use a nuclear weapon for defensive purposes.

In other areas, too, regional differences emerged. The Japanese were more than twice as likely to see North Korea as a threat as they were Iran. But in China, which shares a border and economic ties with North Korea, only 1 in 10 saw Pyongyang as a threat.

Despite the toll taken by the Iraq war, Americans appeared to be paying less attention than others around the world to the controversies that the war has caused.

While 3 in 4 Americans said they had heard reports of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at the United States naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, substantially more West Europeans and Japanese — 9 in 10 — had heard about them.

Awareness of global warming was uniformly high in the industrialized countries, but concern about its effects was sharpest in Japan and India, with two-thirds of those polled in both countries expressing great concern. Awareness was lowest in the countries that are the greatest emitters of the greenhouse gases linked to warming — China and the United States — and only 2 in 10 people in those countries said they were very concerned about the problem.

Awareness of bird flu was nearly universal. The greatest alarm over the spread of the disease was in Asia, where the avian epidemic began, and in Africa. Only one American in 10 was very worried, and European levels were similarly low.

In a phenomenon troubling to Mr. Bush and his Republican supporters, war worries and high gasoline prices appear to be weighing on Americans' satisfaction ratings, even as many economic indicators have risen. While half of Americans expressed satisfaction with conditions at home in 2003, only 29 percent did so this year.

The Pew survey's margin of error was 2 to 4 percent in every country but Britain and Germany, where it was 6 percent. Mr. Kohut said the 6 percent margin, while high, was still valid in so broad a comparative survey.