A nine-nation survey commissioned last month by the prestigious Pew Global Attitudes Project (see their website here: http://people-press.org/) found a disturbing animosity toward the United State in every major European country except Great Britain. For example, people in Germany held an "unfavorable" opinion of the United States by a margin of 71-25 percent. In France, unfavorables beat favorables by a margin of 67-31 percent. In Italy it was 59-34 percent, in Spain 74-14 percent.
In France, 75 percent of respondents said they opposed "the U.S. and other allies taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein's rule." Only 20 percent said they were in favor. However, when these same individuals were asked whether or not they thought that "the Middle East region will be more or less stable after Saddam Hussein is removed from power" a 46-37 percent majority agreed that the region would be more stable. When asked whether or not they thought "the people of Iraq will be better off or worse off" after the Allied campaign, an overwhelming majority of 73-14 percent agreed that Iraqis would be better off.
The results are reflected across the continent. In Germany, opponents of the war outpolled supporters by 69-27 percent but a large majority of Germans (56-32 percent) said that the Mideast region would be more stable absent Hussein and an even larger majority of Germans said that the Iraqi people would be better off (71-15 percent). In Italy, only 17 percent of respondents favored their own government's policy of supporting America in the war, but once again large numbers said the region would be more stable (46-27 percent) and the Iraqi people better off (61-18 percent).
This data suggests that there has been very little disagreement between the American government and the European people when it came to Hussein's cruelty toward his own subjects and the menace he posed to his neighbors. And yet instead of applauding the Bush administration's uncompromising stance toward evil, the European "street" is almost as anti-American as the Arab "street." The typical poll respondent is essentially saying "Yes, we think the war will ultimately be in the best interests of the Iraqi people, and yes, the Arab world will be more stable and peacefull if Saddam is no longer there, but for God's sake, don't do it!"
What is even more mystifying is that this admittedly desirable final result has been achieved largely with American money and American blood - the Europeans (apart from the British) are basically risking nothing. You would think then, that European attitudes toward this whole thing would be more or less positive. I mean, I could understand Europeans being a bit apprehensive, as anyone has a right to be about a war. But this is really strange. "We agree your actions are ultimately for the greater good, but we hate you for it".
I think this is a result of two things, basically. One is a modern, new age squeamishness. France, for example, long refused to extradite Ira Einhorn because he potentiallyfaced the death penalty upon his return the the U.S.. Ira Einhorn, for those of you unfamiliar with the name, was a 1960s left wing radical, who around Sept. 9, 1977, killed his girlfriend, Holly Maddux and stuffed her in a steamer trunk which he put in his closet. Her body spent the next year and a half decomposing there, while Einhorn refused to let his apartment building's janitor examine the source of the smell, or the rancid brown liquid seeping through his floorboards.
When the body was discovered he fled to France, and as I said, the French sheltered him because he might be executed in America (and this is a problem, why?). I think that in modern Europe, many people have exalted squeamishness and now regard it as a moral virtue. Violence is BAD! Killing is BAD! Under any circumstances. Ever. Period. The fact that violence and war may occasionally be the lesser of two evils is dismissed as a silly idea.
The other reason I think Europeans have opposed the war on Iraq is an emotionally based, reflexive anti-Americanism. Perhaps it is envy that America had supplanted Europe as the worlds largest economy and military power. It has become widespread enough that some Europeans literally are willing to impute worse motives and less integrity and honesty to George W. Bush and the American government than they are to the government of a repressive, one-party police state, led by an incontrovertibly blood-soaked tyant like Saddam Hussein. Consider the following excerpt from this article (http://www.worldrevolution.org/article/555) by Glenn Frankel of the Washington Post Foreign Service, dated Tuesday, February 11, 2003:
Is this not incredible? I do understand criticism of American foreign policy, but this crosses into paranoia, and it's becoming increasingly common in Europe.Smith, the director of the American Academy, recalled the prosperous and sophisticated German couple who sat next to him on a recent train ride to Berlin. Creators of a successful pharmaceutical research company, they were the kind of people he assumed would be most comfortable with American ideas and values. Instead, he said, they railed against American arrogance and imperial ambitions and refused to concede there might be two sides to the argument.
"I was making the case that if we go into Iraq and discover weapons of mass destruction, then the world would come to realize we'd been right," Smith recalled. "And they told me, 'If that happens, it's only because the CIA planted them.' I was floored."
I am not saying there is nothing wrong with American foreign policy, not am I saying that we never do things that certainly deserve criticism. But a lot of the criticism coming our way these days is emotional, not rational.
