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Reckless
behavior has its price, too. Some
interesting conclusions here affirming the American public preferring a
multilateral, cooperative effort in foreign policy, rebuking the Bush2
administration’s till now unilateral cowboy approach. One of the simplest lessons of 9/11 is
that we should keep talking – and listening - to each other. - KWC U.S. Public
Counsels Cooperation Two Years After 9/11 by Jim Lobe, Published on
Wednesday, September 10, 2003 by the Inter Press Service WASHINGTON - Two years after the
Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the U.S. public
favors a distinctly less unilateral strategy than the one pursued by President
George W. Bush, found a major new poll released Tuesday. A very strong majority --
nearly 80 percent -- said they believed that U.S. policy in the Islamic world
is creating conditions that make it easier for terrorist groups to grow there. Some 81 percent of
more than 1,200 respondents told pollsters from the University of Maryland's
Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) that working ''more closely''
with other countries was a key lesson learned from Sep. 11, as opposed to
Washington acting ''on its own more'' to fight terrorism. Strong majorities also called
for the administration to pursue ''more cooperative approaches'' with other
nations and rely more on economic aid and diplomacy to fight terrorism and less
on military means, according to the survey, conducted by California-based
Knowledge Networks between Aug. 26 and Sep. 3. The poll was released by PIPA, which has tracked U.S. public
opinion on foreign policy for some 15 years, on the eve of the second
anniversary of the Sep. 11 attacks and just as the Bush administration appears
to have begun canvassing for support at the United Nations for greater
international participation in peace-keeping and reconstruction efforts in
Iraq. The administration, which
had insisted on going to war in March without authorization from the U.N.
Security Council, has concluded that it must now return to the Council in order
to persuade other countries to send troops and other forms of assistance. In a nationally televised
address Sunday, Bush said other countries had a ''duty'' to provide help and,
at the same time, announced that his administration needed some 87 billion
dollars in emergency aid over the next 13 months to sustain U.S. operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan. The total, which shocked even
Bush's fellow Republicans in Congress worried about Washington's exploding
budget deficit, was more than twice what had previously been estimated and
assumes that other countries will contribute some 30 billion additional dollars
to the effort. Some commentators
have said that the administration's new approach to the U.N. constitutes an
implicit admission that the unilateralism with which it pursued the war is no
longer tenable. If so, the administration may be moving toward the
mainstream of U.S. public opinion,
which has long called for a more multilateral
approach to its war on terrorism and in Iraq. If anything, according to the
poll, which asked the randomly chosen respondents more than 60 in-depth
questions, the public's embrace of multilateralism appears to have deepened. Asked which was the
''more important lesson of September 11'', 81 percent of respondents chose
''the U.S. needs to work more closely with other countries'' instead of ''the
U.S. needs to act on its own more to fight terrorism'', with which 16 percent
of respondents agreed. In June 2002, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR) asked the same question in its own comprehensive survey. At that
time, 61 percent of respondents agreed with the first alternative and 34
percent chose the more unilateralist approach. While the new poll found that
about two-thirds of respondents approved of Bush's anti-terrorist efforts in a
general sense, they were more critical of specific policies, according to
Steven Kull, PIPA's director, who attributed the relatively high approval
ratings to the residue of a ''rally-round-the-president effect'' that dates
from Sep. 11. Some 54 percent of respondents
said the administration has been ''too assertive'' in relation to other
countries, while 58 percent called on the administration to put ''more emphasis
on diplomatic and economic methods'' in dealing with threats in the Islamic
world, as opposed to ''military methods''. In what Kull said was ''the most
dramatic finding'', the survey found that 76
percent of the public said they feel no safer from the threat of terrorism now
than they did in the immediate aftermath of Sep. 11. Only 24 percent said they felt safer. On the other hand, asked whether the administration's
efforts over the past two years at reducing the risk of a terrorist act had
made them feel safer, 46 percent agreed. In response to that question, 53
percent said they felt no safer. At the same time, a very strong
majority -- nearly 80 percent -- said they believed that U.S. policy in the
Islamic world is creating conditions that make it easier for terrorist groups
to grow there. Two-thirds of respondents said
they thought feelings by Muslims against U.S. policy had worsened over the last
two years, while 60 percent said they thought ''a majority of people in the
Islamic world think U.S. policies in the Middle East make the region less
stable''. Only 35 percent disagreed, insisting that most Muslims overseas think
U.S. policies enhance Middle Eastern stability. Perhaps most striking, almost
three-quarters of respondents assume that the majority of overseas Muslims
''share many of al-Qaeda's feelings toward the U.S.'', even if most of those
who have a similar perspective do not support their methods. Two-thirds of respondents also said
they believe that most people in the Middle East want Washington ''to play a
less prominent and influential role'' in the region and reduce its military
presence there. A similar majority agreed that
the U.S. military presence in the region increases the likelihood of terrorist
attacks against the country, and that it indeed should be reduced over the next
decade. By contrast, 32 percent and 31
percent, respectively, said the U.S. military presence reduces the chances of a
terrorist attack and that its military profile there should be increased. In a rebuke to the
administration's plans to reform the Middle East, unilaterally if necessary,
some 58 percent of respondents agreed that, ''The U.S. is playing the role of
world policeman in the Middle East more than it should''. Thirty-nine percent
disagreed. A majority of the public rejects the view that tensions between the
West and the Islamic world are inevitable, although the proportion of
individuals who take that view has increased over the past two years. While a minority of 36 percent
agreed with the assertion, ''Because Islamic religious and social traditions
are intolerant and fundamentally incompatible with Western culture, violent
conflict is bound to keep happening'', that marked an increase from 26 percent
when PIPA asked the same question in November 2001. Similarly, 60 percent of respondents insisted that Muslims
generally ''have needs and wants like those of people everywhere, so it is
possible for us to find common ground'', while 68 percent subscribed to that
view two months after the Sep. 11 attacks. But close to 80 percent of respondents said Washington
should make greater efforts to improve relations with people in the Islamic
world. In a separate poll released
Tuesday, the Gallup organization said the public's confidence in the government's
ability to handle international problems has fallen
to levels close to what they were just before Sep. 11. Before the attacks,
14 percent of respondents expressed a great deal of confidence in the
government's capability, a total that rose to 36 percent in October 2001. But
today, the figure has fallen back to 18 percent, Gallup said. Copyright
2003 IPS-Inter Press Service >Other Things You
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