Our standing may rise upon exiting Iraq, but primarily because many nations simply have more trust in a nonconservative American president.
Case in point: According to that Pew study, the socially liberal nations of France, Germany and Britain overwhelmingly have confidence in President Obama to “do the right thing” globally.
Yet Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, does not, with only a 20 percent confidence rating.
Many people don’t understand that others will dislike America no matter what we do – and that our global detractors have even more worrisome problems.
When the towers fell on 9/11, I watched in tears as CNN cut away to live Middle Eastern scenes of men, women and children dancing jubilantly in the streets. An ecstatic celebration of our 3,000 dead, of the great blow struck against the Great Satan.
In the Palestinian territories, those fed and clothed with the aid of American dollars (an estimated $2 billion since the Oslo Accord) erupted in joy, firing weapons into the air as if they wished they had piloted the airplanes themselves.
CNN never aired those images again. But I remember. This was before Iraq. Before the war on terror.
“Cowboy Bush” was in office just 7 1/2 months or so. And still, presumably because we support Israel as well as the Palestinians, these Arabs rejoiced in our tragedy.
Heritage Foundation Middle Eastern expert James Phillips explained by phone that Obama might currently be more popular in the wider Arab world, but: “They are not going to like his policies, which are going to be pretty much the same. We will be defending our own interests and those of our allies.”
And when Obama does that, “Those that hate Israel and support the radical groups Hamas and Hezbollah are going hate us, regardless,” Phillips said.
Part of anti-U.S. feeling stems historically from our “global policeman” role – a role many nations abhor precisely until they need it.
Europeans automatically like us more with Obama in office – but the Pew report also found an increase in their hostility toward Jews and Muslims.
I wish other nations would look at the plank in their own eyes before picking the speck out of ours.
Shaunti Feldhahn (<scfeldhahn@yahoo.com) is a conservative Christian author and speaker, and married mother of two.