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U.S. a threat to peace, says poll

Ewen MacAskill

WASHINGTON: U.S. President George W. Bush's six years in office have so damaged the image of the U.S. that people worldwide see Washington as a bigger threat to world peace than Teheran, according to a global poll.

The Washington-based Pew Research Centre, in a poll of 17,000 people in 15 countries between March and May, found more people concerned about the U.S. presence in Iraq than about Iran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.

The Pew Centre said: ``Despite growing concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the U.S. presence in Iraq is cited at least as often as Iran — and in many countries much more often — as a danger to world peace.''

The survey, carried out annually, shows a continued decline in support for the U.S. since 1999.

The U.S. image for most of the 20th century has been relatively positive, being regularly identified with democracy, human rights and openness in spite of criticism from the Left, which reached a height during the Vietnam War, and a residual suspicion in the Muslim world.

But even in the U.K., Washington's closest ally, favourable ratings have slumped from 83 per cent in 1999 to 56 per cent this year.

The pattern is similar in France, down from 62 per cent to 39 per cent, Germany 78 per cent to 37 per cent, and Spain 50 per cent to 23 per cent.

In Muslim countries with which the U.S. has traditionally enjoyed a good relationship, such as Turkey — a member of NATO — and Indonesia, there have also been slumps.

In Indonesia favourable ratings for the U.S. have dropped from 75 per cent to 30 per cent, and in Turkey from 52 per cent to 12 per cent.

``It's all [because of] Iraq,'' Carroll Doherty, associate director of the Pew Centre, said. He added that it was a sign of how ``dangerous Iraq is to the U.S. image'' that, in spite of common cause between the U.S. and Europeans on Iran, there had been no improvement in the U.S. position in Europe. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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