[Mb-civic] FW: Judging America by What It Does (and in Venezuela too)

[Michael Butler]

------ Forwarded Message
From: ean at sbcglobal.net
Reply-To: ean at sbcglobal.net
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 15:37:01 -0700
To: ean at sbcglobal.net
Subject: Judging America by What It Does


---------------

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit

The Jordan Times - august 10, 2004
http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/opinion/opinion2.htm

Washington Watch

Judging America by What It Does

by James J. Zogby

Two years ago, I wrote an article titled It's the policy, stupid.
Zogby International had just completed two major polls in several Arab
countries. We found that Arabs had very positive attitudes towards
American science and technology, freedom and democracy, products, people,
education, movies and television. What drove down the overall attitudes
towards America, however, was US policy towards the Arabs, particularly
the Palestinians.

The article and the poll found a receptive audience. My brother, John
Zogby, and I addressed the Department of State, testified before Congress
and lectured on the results before distinguished audiences across the US.
What we provided was an antidote to the fictitious claim made by some who
had argued that Arab displeasure with the US was based on cultural
differences or hatred of American values.

What our polling data showed, quite simply, was that Arabs judged
America by how they saw America treating them. It was clear that Arabs, in
fact, respected American values  but they did not see American policy
reflecting those values. This became even clearer when our poll asked the
Arab respondents to utter the first thought that came to mind when they
heard America. They told us its unfair policies. And when we asked what
should the US do to improve its relationship with the Arab world,
responses focused on the need for the US to change its policies to be more
just and less biased.

In no case did our respondents mention American values or products.

We have just completed a follow-up study in six Arab countries, to
measure what changes in attitude may have occurred in the past two years
and to identify the factors that may have accounted for these changes.

The results are disturbing.

Overall, favourable ratings for the US have declined in the past two
years. In some countries, the change has been dramatic. In 2002, for
example, 38 per cent of Moroccans had a favourable view of the US. In
2004, only 11 per cent held such a view. Similar results are in evidence
in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Even more disturbing is the
fact that while Arab attitude towards American values, people and products
remain mostly favourable, these too have declined in the past two years.

All this continues to be driven by US policy. The Arab attitude
vis-}-vis American policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is
extremely low. But these negative attitudes have now been eclipsed by an
even greater Arab rejection of US policy towards Iraq. In Morocco, Saudi
Arabia and Egypt, for example, America's Iraq policy rates less than one
per cent favourable rating. In Jordan, it received a two per cent rating,
while in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), only four per cent of
the public approves of US policy in Iraq.

Surprising was that in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the UAE, anger over
America's treatment of Arabs and Muslims appeared to be an even more
significant factor than Iraq and Palestine in determining overall
negative attitudes towards the US.

In responses given to open-ended questions, the role that anger with US
policy plays in this growing Arab disenchantment with America becomes even
clearer. When asked to identify the first thought that comes to mind, the
best and worst things they could say about America and what America should
do to change its image in the Arab world, the principal responses all
focused on were policy issues. Stop supporting Israel, Change your Middle
East policy and Stop killing Arabs were among the most common responses.

It is interesting to note that the only time values factored in the
discussion was when Arab respondents urged America to adopt a more
values-driven foreign policy, i.e., show more respect, apply justice
or work harder for peace.

What our data demonstrates is what most of the world and a great number of
Americans already know: policy matters. What is disturbing, however, is
the degree to which US policy makers refuse to acknowledge the role that
policy plays in this widening gap that is separating America from the Arab
world.

The president and leading lawmakers continue to obfuscate this fact,
insisting that the problem lies elsewhere. Commissions have been formed to
study the situation, but have been instructed to rule out a priori any
discussion of policy as the problem.

Even the Sept. 11 Commission, in its otherwise thoughtful treatment of
issues related to this tragedy, skirted this problem by noting: Right or
wrong, it is simply a fact that American policy regarding the Arab-Israeli
conflict and American actions in Iraq are dominant staples of popular
commentary across the Arab and Muslim world. That does not mean that US
choices have been wrong. It means those choices must be integrated with
America's message of opportunity to the Arab and Muslim world.

In fact, it is the commission's findings that are right and wrong. They
are right to observe that America's policy is at the root of Arab
discontent, but they are wrong to assume that a message of opportunity can
change that dynamic. What our 2002 and 2004 polls show is that Arabs judge
America not by what it says, but by what it does, and in this regard, it
is still the policy, stupid, that is the problem.

                                *

To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit:
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr

***


Today's commentary:
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-08/11jensen.cfm