Editorial comment: Global backlash
Published: June 3 2003 20:23 | Last Updated: June 3 2003 20:23
Clear evidence of the collateral damage caused by the war in Iraq continues to accumulate. The latest comes from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which shows both a widening rift between Europe and America and a dramatic slump in pro-US attitudes throughout the Muslim world. It also reveals a significant international decline in the reputation of the United Nations and a cooling in enthusiasm, both in Europe and in America, for the Nato alliance.
All of these trends - confirmed since the war ended - should cause concern, particularly in Washington. The war may not have triggered anti-American riots in the Muslim world but it has stoked a sullen anti-Americanism that will prove very hard to counteract. On the other hand, the survey points to an underlying belief in those same Muslim countries in what may be seen as core American values: democratic institutions and a free market economy. The hostility is towards American policies, not American values.
That is also clear in European attitudes to the US. The only western European countries surveyed where there is still a positive majority are the UK and Italy. Even there the support has dropped appreciably. In Germany, France, Russia and Spain, the favourable view of the US is well below 50 per cent. But in all those European countries, including Italy and the UK, the blame is clearly laid at the door of the Bush administration, not "America in general". That holds most true in France and Germany.
Majorities in most countries believe that the Iraqi people will be better off without Saddam Hussein - although some Muslim countries including Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia disagree. But the decline in favourable attitudes towards the US is mirrored in a drop in support for the US-led "war on terrorism".
In the words of the report, "the bottom has fallen out of support for America in most of the Muslim world". That is particularly alarming in previously pro-American countries such as Indonesia (down from 61 to 15 per cent in 12 months) and Turkey. The other extraordinary and disturbing indicator is that in several Muslim countries there is strong popular confidence that Osama bin Laden will "do the right thing regarding world affairs".
All these results suggest that the US may have won the war in Iraq but it is losing the battle for international public opinion. There has been a recovery in some attitudes since the days immediately before war began but the long-term trend is steadily downhill.
Opinion polls should not dictate policy. But they can indicate where government action is proving counter- productive. This survey does suggest that the Bush administration is seen as unilateralist and high-handed. It shows that far too little has been done to persuade public opinion of the need to counter global terrorism, especially in the Muslim world. That should not just worry Washington. It should worry the entire international community.
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