Damn Blogger is giving me fits tonight - This is the second time I've tried this post from scratch after four failed attempts to edit the first post which is leaving out a link and some text-box colors.
Of the ten countries polled in 2004 and again in 2005 by the Pew research group, the US has fallen in public estimation in eight of them. In only three -- Britain, Canada, and Russia -- did a majority still look upon the US charitably.
The reasons are not hard to find. Only weeks back the country that aspires to lead the free world stood alongside only Israel, Palau and the Marshal Islands in rejecting the creation of a new UN council to protect human rights. Only the US and Somalia (which has no recognized government) have failed to ratify the UN convention on the rights of children.
For long, the US clung to the notion that military strength would always have the last say and none of these syndromes mattered. It could well strut the world stage chanting: "no one likes us, we don't care." Indeed, in the wake of 9/11, it wore its unpopularity as a badge of honour.
But as events in Iraq have soured, the ability of the Bush administration to deliver on these threats has diminished considerably. With its military over-stretched and its diplomatic resources exhausted it has apparently been forced back to a position of relative weakness because nobody trust it or particularly fears it. If anything, both Iran and North Korea have lately been emboldened by the US failures in the Gulf.
No comments:
Post a Comment