Utica Progressive

President Bush is being greeted by scores of protesters at each stop on his Latin American trip. This common occurrence, as well as reading Williams Blum’s Rogue State, have caused me to question the influence of the United States in world affairs. Are we helping, hurting, or not really having much effect?

A BBC poll released in late January shows world opinion of US Foreign Policy very low. The Washington Post reads:

Nearly three-quarters of those polled in 25 countries disapprove of U.S. policies toward Iraq, and more than two-thirds said the U.S. military presence in the Middle East does more harm than good. Nearly half of those polled in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East said the United States is now playing a mainly negative role in the world.

Many of the countries involved are members of the so called “Coalition of the Willing” involved in the invasion of Iraq. I understand that public opinion polls may lack accuracy, validity, etc; in any case, the United States must be going about things in a very wrongheaded way to elicit such a response from the global community.  Again from the Post:

“I thought it had bottomed out a year ago, but it’s gotten worse, and we really are at historic lows,” said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes. Kull attributed much of the problem to a growing perception of “hypocrisy” on the part of the United States in such areas as cooperation with the United Nations and other international bodies, especially involving the use of military force.

“The thing that comes up repeatedly is not just anger about Iraq,” Kull said, adding that the BBC poll is consistent with numerous other surveys around the world that have measured attitudes toward the United States. “The common theme is hypocrisy. The reaction tends to be: ‘You were a champion of a certain set of rules. Now you are breaking your own rules, so you are being hypocritical.’ “

When the United States refuses to take part in the bans of land mines and cluster-bombs, refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol or acknowledge Global Warming, refuses to submit its military personnel to international courts, invades sovereign nations in clear violation of international law, and subjects prisoners to systematic torture, the world takes notice.

We need to take a long hard look at the way this country deals with other nations. Just because the United States is the “home team” doesn’t mean we are playing by the rules.