Quote:
Originally Posted by tw
A trend from the numbers. Iran is not the ‘American hater’ as some Americans so strongly believe. From polls, that ‘strongly unfavorable’ rating is higher in Pakistan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia - supposedly American's closest friends. Sometimes those ‘unfavorable to favorable’ numbers are two to one and four to one – landslide opinions. Government ‘support of America’ is not shared by their people. ‘American unfavorable’ ratings tend to be equal or slightly higher among America's closest allies as compared to Iran.
|
tw, as usual you are fixated on one subject (and I *do not* mean this is a nasty way). What difference do numbers in opinion polls really make? For a start, opinion polls, wherever they are conducted, are unreliable. People will answer one way on a given day, and the reverse on another. Do you really think that Giuliani really has a chance of being the Republican candidate in 2008? He is topping the polls at the moment, but who thinks he will actually get up, let alone win the Presidency? I like the guy, but he has no hope. The polls you cite are similar. The Saudi people hate their government (close to a dictatorship), so they will hate anyone who they see as assisting that government to stay in power (eg. the US). Jordan has a large population of Palestinians. That explains
their opinions.
As I mentioned earlier, over 700,000 Iranians died in the US supported Iraq/Iran war. The Iranian people have long memories.
Yes, the average Pakistani "on the street" is going to say he/she hates America, but they have been brainwashed. The big worry for the West is if Musharraf is deposed or assassinated, and Shiite extremists take control, terrorism will spread through the Middle East and the West, like a wild fire. If the US can protect Musharraf for a long enough period, then maybe, just maybe, the bulk of the Pakistani people will realise that the US and the West are not the ogres they think we are. Musharraf is walking a thin line between power (and life), and death. What would you have the US do - invade Pakistan and have all the doubters suddenly convinced that indeed the US *is* evil? I hope not.