No one will confuse the US with a very popular country. But new surveys from the global attitudes project suggest that, in some regions, we're not quite as loathed as we once were:
In 2003, 98% of Palestinians didn't like us. Now, a mere 86% think we blow. Meanwhile, what's up with Turkey? That's a huge jump in anti-American sentiment. PIPA writes:
A 2005 poll by Infakto found that 71 percent of Turkish respondents agreed with the argument that “the West has helped separatist groups in Turkey”—such as the Kurdish PKK—“gain strength.” Sixty-six percent think that “Western countries want to divide and break Turkey like they divided and broke the Ottoman Empire in the past.”
The declining support among Turks for the EU and NATO is consistent with such convictions. The ratio of Turks who see membership in the EU as a “good thing” fell from 73 percent in 2004 to 54 percent in 2006, according to the German Marshall Fund. And the numbers saying NATO is essential for Turkey's security fell from a bare majority in 2004 (53%) to 44 percent in 2006, though this remains the largest percentage of respondents.
These attitudes seem to be reflected in Turkey's growing opposition to American counter-terrorism policies. A majority of Turks (58%) already said that they opposed “the US-led efforts to fight terrorism,” in Pew's 2002 survey. That jumped to 79 percent in 2007.
That's not the direction we should be moving in. Turkey is one of the few Muslim countries controlled by those religious moderates we're always trying to embolden. And yet the nation's citizenry thinks US policy is directly hostile to them, and is increasingly turning away from integration with the West. Way to snuff out those few remaining bright spots, guys.
