Jamie

Weinstein

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September 8, 2008

America’s Image: Being Liked Isn’t Everything

"He will restore America's image in the world" is often the answer I get when I ask people why they support Barack Obama for president.

This is an understandable desire. Everyone wants to be liked, and when polls show that America's image in the world is not as lofty as it used to be, there is a tendency among some to think that America needs to change its ways so it can curry favor with the world community.

In June, the Pew Research Center released its 2008 Global Attitudes Survey. The poll, which has been conducted numerous times in recent years, asks people in different countries how they view America and how they view other countries and topics of concern.

This year's survey showed, on average, a slight rise in the favorability of the United States. Still, America's favorability is far below what it once was.

You can see the trend in America favorability dip noticeably at the outset of the war in Iraq in 2003. This is no surprise. Many in the world were against the war. What is striking, however, is how America favorability ticks up significantly in May 2003, around two months after the invasion when President Bush prematurely declared “Mission Accomplished.” At the time, a swift victory looked in sight. This suggests that the world likes success, and had the U.S. won the war in a quick and overwhelming manner, world opinion might have continued to rise to pre-war levels.

There are a number of other interesting data points in the survey that demand notice. Sixty-six percent of Indians, for example, register as having a favorable view of the United States. As the world's second most populous country behind China and a rising economic power, this is not only a heartening statistic, but an enormously important one. One of President Bush's greatest legacies will be his successful effort to develop a strategic bond with India.

Despite the unpopularity of America in many quarters, the poll shows that the world as a whole recognizes, like America does, the danger of a nuclear Iran. Of all the majority Muslim countries polled in the survey (eight in all), only a majority of Pakistanis saw no threat at all in an Iranian nuclear state. Majorities in Turkey, Lebanon and Tanzania saw a nuclear Iran as either a serious threat or a somewhat serious threat. And when you combine those who said it was any type of threat at all (major or otherwise), majorities of Nigerians, Indonesians, Jordanians and Egyptians agreed. But this is just icing on the cake. I know I had you at Tanzania. 

When asked whether America is more of a partner, an enemy or neither, only a majority of Pakistanis said more of an enemy. In Indonesia and India, countries with the world's first and second largest Muslim populations respectively, more people saw America as a partner than an enemy by those who took a stand instead of registering the “neither” option. A small victory indeed.

I don't deny that being liked is a nice thing, but I do reject the notion that being liked is everything. It is not. Sometimes doing the right thing alienates people. America should try to foster a positive image of itself, but it shouldn't do so at the expense of vital national interests. Some of our greatest friends in Eastern Europe were made following a policy that drew mass protests on the streets of Western European capitals. The result of that policy was the defeat of the Soviet Union and the liberation of hundreds of millions of people.

At the end of the day, much of the world still watches our movies, wears our clothing, benefits from our technology, enjoys the free travel of the seas that our Navy secures and looks to us for help when a disaster befalls or an enemy threatens. They may say they don't like us, but it is sometimes hard to believe when so many want to be us. And judging by those rickety raffs that still leave Cuba and Haiti to reach our shores or by the never-ending flow of immigrants who try to sneak across our southern border, the world's poor and oppressed are still willing to risk life and limb to make it here.

Speaking at the National Press Club on the day the survey was released in June, New York Times columnist David Brooks summed up the report well. 

"I was at an Orioles game a couple of years ago," he said. "And while we were walking out of the ballpark a Yankees hat was lying on the parking lot ground. Somebody kicked the Yankees hat, and then another person kicked it, and another person kicked it. And pretty soon 30 and 40 people had gathered around this hat just stomping it and kicking it around. If you are the Yankees of the world, you are always going to be hated to some extent . . . and one of the virtues of being a Jew is that sometimes when people hate you, you know it's not your fault. Sometimes some of the things the U.S. has done are obviously going to alienate people, but sometimes it's not our fault."

Yes, being unpopular doesn't make us wrong. Isn't that a lesson we should have learned in kindergarten? 

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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