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Poll Among 11 Countries Shows That Many View United States As More Dangerous Than North Korea 6/18/03 5:40PM By AUDREY WOODS, Associated Press Writer A sampling of public opinion in 11 nations finds many see the United States as an arrogant superpower that poses a greater danger to world peace than North Korea. President Bush failed to impress 58 percent of those questioned by pollsters for a British Broadcasting Corp. broadcast Tuesday night. They said they had a fairly unfavorable or very unfavorable view of the American president. If the American respondents were removed from the sample, the number rose to 60 percent. The poll questioned 11,000 people in May and June in 11 nations: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The poll was conducted by pollsters including ICM in Britain and IPSOS Reid in the United States. The BBC did not estimate a margin of error. Not all the news was bad for the United States. Even though 67 percent said they wouldn't want their countries to copy U.S. economic policies, 67 percent would aspire to U.S. gains in science and technology, and 56 percent to the opportunities for advancement available to people in the United States. Forty percent aspired to U.S. freedom of expression. But the way the United States wields its power worried many of those questioned for the program, "What the World Thinks of America." Only 25 percent - excluding Americans - said U.S. military might was making the world a safer place. Forty-one percent agreed with Prime Minister Tony Blair's opinion that the United States is a force for good in the world, and 55 disagreed. Sixty-five percent overall - and a majority in every country, including the United States - said America is arrogant. Forty-seven percent said America is friendly, and 33 percent find the United States antagonistic. Fifty-six percent said the United States was wrong to attack Iraq. That number reached 81 percent in Russia and 63 percent in France, two nations that led world opposition to the war. Overall, 37 percent said the war was right - 54 percent in Britain, 74 percent in the United States and 79 percent in Israel. The al-Qaida terrorist organization was ranked more dangerous than the United States, but the Americans were judged to be a greater threat than Russia, China, Syria and two members of Bush's Axis of Evil - Iran and North Korea. Even in South Korea, where tensions along the Demilitarized Zone run high, 48 percent of respondents judged the United States to be a greater threat to world peace than the communist neighbors to the north, with their nuclear program. In a studio panel of commentators, former British Cabinet member Clare Short, who quit her post to protest the invasion of Iraq, said post-Sept. 11 America was "a wounded giant, full of anger ... that feels it's got to exercise its power all over the world; I think that's becoming a frightening America." Fifty percent of the poll respondents said they had a fairly positive or very positive view of the United States, compared with 40 percent who had unfavorable views. Those figures excluded Americans. Many said their own countries were becoming more like America - 81 percent of Australians agreed with that statement, as did 64 percent of Britons and 63 percent of Israelis.
