Many Think U.S. Wants World Domination
By WILL LESTER
WASHINGTON (AP) - A majority of people living in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey say they believe the U.S. is conducting its campaign against terror to control Mideast oil and to dominate the world, according to an international poll released Tuesday.
The governments in all four Muslim-majority countries have strong ties with the U.S. government.
A sizable number of people in France, Germany and Russia also have these suspicions about the campaign against terror, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
The polls were taken in February, before the train bombings in Spain that claimed the lives of at least 200 people.
In a surprise defeat, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservatives on Sunday became the first government that backed Washington in Iraq to be voted from office.
When people in the nine countries - including Britain and the United States - were asked if the campaign against terrorism was a sincere effort to reduce international terrorism, majorities in France, Germany and the four Muslim-majority countries felt it was not. Almost half in Russia felt it was not, while majorities in Britain and the United States said they believe the campaign is a sincere effort to fight terrorism.
The surveys found considerable cynicism and anger among the Muslim-majority countries a year after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And they found a growing desire among European countries for a balance of power between the European Union and the United States.
``Europeans want to check our power,'' said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. ``There's considerable support for making the European Union as powerful as the United States.''
Europeans in those countries are eager to set up security arrangements independent from the United States.
People in the surveyed Muslim countries remain angry about U.S. policies, and even supportive of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist who took credit for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Almost two-thirds of the people in Pakistan say they view bin Laden favorably - a significant finding because U.S. troops are trying to find bin Laden in the mountainous region on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. More than half of those in Jordan and almost half of those polled in Morocco had a favorable view of the Saudi terrorist.
Anger toward the United States in these Muslim-majority countries remains very high, Kohut said, though the intensity has dropped a bit since last May.
While seven in 10 in the United States feel their country takes into account the interests of other countries when making international policy decisions, few in the other countries shared that view.
Majorities in all the countries except Pakistan, and almost half there, felt the United States doesn't make much of an effort to consider the interests of other countries in its policy decisions.
At least two-thirds of people living in France, Germany, Russia and Turkey thought it would be a good thing if the European Union becomes as powerful as the United States. Turkey and Russia are not currently members of the European Union.
A majority of those in Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Turkey think Western Europe should take a more independent approach to security and diplomatic matters.
In other key findings:
While support for the war on terrorism has dropped in many of those countries, it has increased in Russia - 73 percent approve - and is almost as strong there as in the United States.
About half in Pakistan said suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians against Israelis and against U.S. troops in Iraq can be justified. Two-thirds or more in Jordan and Morocco say it can be justified in both situations.
A majority of the people in Pakistan and Jordan say Iraq will be worse off now that Saddam Hussein has been removed from power.
A solid majority of those in France, Germany, Russia, Pakistan and Jordan believe United States President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair lied about the weapons of mass destruction they claimed were in Iraq.
Ratings for the United Nations are relatively high in European countries, and low in the Muslim countries. Just over half in the United States, 55 percent, gave a favorable rating to the U.N.
``In America, the ratings of the U.N. are much lower than elsewhere,'' said Kohut, referring to the European countries. ``Historically we're at a low point.''
The polls were conducted between Feb. 19 and March 3. They have margins of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and the United States. Polls in Britain, France and Germany have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
How the international survey was conducted:
Results for the surveys in nine countries are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews in those countries. Telephone interviews were conducted among a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults in the United States, 500 in Great Britain 503 in France and 500 in Germany.
Face-to-face interviews were conducted among a nationwide sample 1,000 adults in Jordan, 1,002 in Russia and 1,017 in Turkey. In Morocco, 1,000 face to face interviews were conducted with 1,000 adults in four major cities and in Pakistan, 1,220 face-to-face interviews in largely urban areas.
The interviews were conducted between Feb. 19 and March 3.
In countries where the sample size was more than 900 - (the United States, Russia, Jordan, Turkey, Morocco and Pakistan - the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. In the countries where the sample was about 500 - Britain, France and Germany - the margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.
On the Net:
Pew Research Center -
http://www.people-press.org
