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[sundubuman]

Let's hope this trend continues......strong leadership keeps its hands firmly on the helm even when Idiotarians foam at the mouth......



Our extreme makeover

By Max Boot
July 31, 2005

We interrupt the latest reports about terrorist atrocities with a news bulletin: Support for suicide bombings and Islamic extremism, along with hatred of the Great Satan, is actually waning in the Muslim world.
If that is a surprise, it's because of the old adage that good news is no news. While the increase of anti-Americanism around the world and especially in Muslim countries has been exhaustively covered since 2001, not enough attention has been paid to an important survey released in the last month that found global opinion shifting in a more positive direction.
The public opinion poll was conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, hardly a bastion of neoconservative zealotry. (It's co-chaired by Madeleine Albright.)
In the last three years, Pew surveys have charted surging anti-Americanism in response to the invasion of Iraq and other Bush administration actions. But its most recent poll of 17,000 respondents in 17 countries in May also found evidence widespread antipathy is abating.
The percentage of people holding a favorable impression of the United States increased in Indonesia (up 23 points), Lebanon up 15), Pakistan (up 2) and Jordan (up 16). It also went up in such non-Muslim nations as France, Germany, Russia and India.
What accounts for this ? The answer varies by country, but analysts point to waning public anger over the invasion of Iraq, gratitude for the massive U.S. tsunami relief effort and growing conviction the U.S. is serious about promoting democracy.
There is also increasing aversion to America's enemies, even in the Islamic world. The Pew poll found "nearly three-quarters of Moroccans and roughly half of those in Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia see Islamic extremism as a threat to their countries."
Support for suicide bombing has declined dramatically in all Muslim countries surveyed except Jordan, with its large anti-Israeli Palestinian population. The number of those saying "violence against civilian targets is sometimes or often justified" has dropped by big margins in Lebanon (down 34 points) and Indonesia (down 12) since 2002, and in the last year in Pakistan (down 16) and Morocco (down 27 percent).
This has been accompanied by a cratering of support for Osama bin Laden everywhere except (unfortunately) Pakistan and Jordan. Since 2003, approval ratings for the world's No. 1 terrorist have slid in Indonesia (minus 23 points), Morocco (down 23), Turkey (down and Lebanon (down 12).
What accounts for this decline? Primarily actions of the terrorists. Since September 11, 2001, most Islamist atrocities have been committed in Muslim nations -- the latest examples the bombings in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, and bombings too numerous to mention in Iraq -- and most of the victims have been Muslims. Not surprisingly, this hasn't endeared the jihadists to a lot of their coreligionists.
Yet even attacks on the West no longer win knee-jerk approval in the Muslim world. After the July 7 London bombings, Islamic groups and intellectuals who once seldom had a cross word for suicide bombings condemned them pretty unequivocally.
To cite one of many examples, Jihad Al Khazen, a rabidly anti-American and anti-Israeli columnist for the Arabic daily Al-Hayat, wrote "the Arabs and Muslims must help the U.S." in the war on terror. There are still plenty of Muslims who blame the victims for bringing terrorism upon themselves, but there is also a growing countervailing attitude.

Muslim opinion also challenges jihadist orthodoxy that proclaims giving power to the people, rather than to mullahs, is "un-Islamic." The latest Pew poll found "large and growing majorities in Morocco (83 percent), Lebanon (83 percent), Jordan (80 percent) and Indonesia (77 percent) -- as well as pluralities in Turkey (48 percent) and Pakistan (43 percent) -- say democracy can work well and is not just for the West."
That's exactly what President Bush has been saying. Though his actions and rhetoric have been denounced as "unrealistic" and "extremist" by American and European critics, it turns out Muslims welcome it. "Roughly half of respondents in Jordan and nearly two-thirds of Indonesians think the U.S. favors democracy in their countries," the new Pew study said. "About half of the public in Lebanon also takes that view." Imagine that: Mr. Bush's actions might actually be making Middle Easterners more pro-American.
Of course, public opinion is fickle, and there is still a lot of hostility toward the United States out there.
Even a small minority of extremists can cause mayhem similar to the London bombings. But there are signs at least the battle for the Islamic world's hearts and minds is far from hopeless.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I posted some information from that survey a couple of weeks ago pertaining to India.

My question is: Why not build on this improved attitude by avoiding the behaviors that spurred the wave of anti-Americanism in the first place?

Just a suggestion, but a place to start would be by withdrawing Bolton from the UN and sending someone who actually respects the place and demonstrates US support for constructive reform in a multinational forum. But that would require the administration to change it policy as well as its ambassador.

[sundubuman]

Couldn't disagree more.

The (virtually) enslaved people ofcountries such as Sudan, North Korea, Zimbabwe stand to benefit from an assertive proponent of expanded freedom and democracy.

Not somebody from inside the beltway (like good 'ol Madeline) who, as intelligent and virtuous as they might be, are not interested in arm-wrestling a den of elites from very undemocratic countries.

Trust me, the only people who are upset about Bolton are leftist sheep who follow the NYT on cue. The starving masses of Niger or the blind masses of North Korea or the poverty stricken lower castes of India are not losing sleep over Bolton's appointment.

[Ya-ta Boy]