Poll Finds Hostility Hardening Toward U.S. Policies
By SUSAN SACHS
During the first year of the United States occupation of Iraq, antagonism toward American foreign policy in some European and Muslim countries has hardened, with public opinion overseas swinging sharply in favor of charting a course independent of Washington, a new poll has found.
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted the survey before the terrorist attack last week in Madrid and the subsequent revolt by Spanish voters against the political party that had embraced American policy toward Iraq.
But the survey found that a majority of people interviewed in France and Germany, two other traditional American allies, already believed that the Iraq war had undermined the struggle against terrorists and doubted the Bush administration's sincerity in trying to combat terror.
"The wounds have not healed among the allied publics since the end of the war and, in fact, things are a little worse," said Andrew Kohut, the director of the Pew Center. "And there are trends that speak to a more long-term and continuing disconnect between the old allies."
The poll was conducted in Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey and the United States. ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/17/international/17PEW.html>
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