Quote:
from NY Times of 11 Sept 2003
In the two years since Sept. 11, 2001, the view of the United States as a victim of terrorism that deserved the world's sympathy and support has given way to a widespread vision of America as an imperial power that has defied world opinion through unjustified and unilateral use of military force.
"A lot of people had sympathy for Americans around the time of 9/11, but that's changed," said Cathy Hearn, 31, a flight attendant from South Africa, expressing a view commonly heard in many countries. "They act like the big guy riding roughshod over everyone else."
In interviews by Times correspondents from Africa to Europe to Southeast Asia, one point emerged clearly: The war in Iraq has had a major impact on public opinion, which has moved generally from post-9/11 sympathy to post-Iraq antipathy, or at least to disappointment over what is seen as the sole superpower's inclination to act pre-emptively, without either persuasive reasons or United Nations approval.
To some degree, the resentment is centered on the person of President Bush, who is seen by many of those interviewed, at best, as an ineffective spokesman for American interests and, at worst, as a gunslinging cowboy knocking over international treaties and bent on controlling the world's oil, if not the entire world.
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Oslo Accords, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, all environmental initiatives domestic and foreign, SALT, protection of anti-American steel companies at the expense of world trade and American steel reprocessors (productive industries), nuclear test ban treaty ... How many more treaties will he destroy in the name of right wing rhetoric? And which country will be invaded next without any good reasons - Syria, N Korea, Iran?
Five years ago, China really had no reason to fear a US attack. In but the past three years, China has every good reason to fear a US attack. The dark side has overrun the country - an MBA named George.