Burning Questions
If this is true, then why do so many want to drive cabs here?
via Poligazette, Brookings poll finds 83 percent of Arabs take a dim view of the United States, and 70 percent have no confidence in the United States. The answer may be America’s top freedom and democracy rating, despite high Arab approval ratings for Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah. The freedom, the democracy and the $$$.
Also curious that unlike Dems, who have been forced to make painful admissions, this poll finds Arabs don’t think the surge is working. But, unlike Dems, Arabs have confidence Iraq is headed for a stable political settlement. Which raises the further question: Which is harder to comprehend, the Dem hill or the Arab street?
Like the Dems, the Arabs polled think things will get better in Iraq once the Americans pull out. They think the Iraqis can resolve all their problems and rivalries among themselves. The polled Arabs live in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Marocco, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
There’s a lot of material re al Qaeda, Iraq, Iran’s nukes in the poll, which you’ll find here. Evidence it’s a tad skewed includes the questions what about AQ qualities most influence Arabs’ opinions about the organization, where the excessively neutral approach, particularly when AL QAEDA is placed against the blue meridian-cross background, could conceivably create the impression that al Qaeda is a branch of the United Nations.* Brookings included “its methods of operation,” but failed to break that down into useful categories such as ”That it purposefully slaughters the Faithful” or conversely “That it righteously slays many infidels.”
* No cruel AQ is a branch of the United Nations jokes, please.
Topics: America, Arabs, al qaeda
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:41 pm on Wednesday, April 16, 2008
6 Responses to “Burning Questions”
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April 16th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
No cruel AQ is a branch of the United Nations jokes, please.
You mean it’s not?
April 16th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Admitting that America turned things around with the surge is just too difficult. Easier to say that Iraqis are doing it all on their own. Which, to be honest, does not seem like a terrible thing. Maybe they will start to assume that if Iraqis can create a democracy for themselves, they can, too. What we don’t want is for them to believe is that it can only be done with America’s military might behind them.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
“No cruel AQ is a branch of the United Nations jokes, please.”
I think it is the other way around. The UN is a terror op run by Al-Qaeda.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
But can we still make cruel jokes about al-Qaeda and the UN?
April 16th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Gee I wonder how many Americans approve of Hezbellah? Other than Jimmy Carter and Jeremiah Wright.
Not all that long ago I saw a poll that had very different results, with a plurality showing support for the US. But I do not have a link.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
What we don’t want is for them to believe is that it can only be done with America’s military might behind them.
If they’re ruled by viciously oppressive dictators, it will take more than wishful thinking and desire though. Someone’s gonna have to get their hands dirty to unseat the likes of an Assad or the Iranian mullahs.