Arab attitudes toward the US

Today's News...

May 2003
he Arab World has been up-in-arms over the US attack on Iraq.

Many pundits here in Washington have said that the Arab street hates us anyway so what does it matter?

We here at The Vested Owl decided that it would be useful to quantify the sentiment felt overseas.

Arab Attitudes
We did an informal survey of people from the Arab World and asked them a variety of questions to better understand their attitudes towards the US and our policies.

Before I get to the results I think it is important to note that a recent Zogby Poll of Arab attitudes concluded that in reality they don't hate us, just our policies. In particular, the biased support for the Israeli government and its human rights abuses against the Palestinians.

As a matter of fact Arabs have very favorable attitudes towards American freedom and democracy, science, technology and movies. However, as Zogby noted, "there is no universally held Arab view, just as there is no universally held American view."

Comic Relief

Watch Arab American comedian Aron Kader's experience with Arab attitudes towards the US

The Results
The overwhelming majority of Arabs disagreed with the US decision to use force in Iraq. With the notable exception of Kuwait.

Many believed that the war will have negative repercussions for the US. When asked if retaliatory acts of violence against the US, either its interests or its citizens, are very likely 73% said yes.

When asked if the US show of force (shock & awe) will discourage future terrorist attacks,
9 out of 10 said it was unlikely. This may be attributed to the notion that some terrorists are suicidal and therefore not afraid to die. Also, our enemies are usually non-state actors who do not share the same considerations as heads-of-state.

The Anger
Perhaps the most telling metric is the following - when asked to rate on a scale of 1-10 the level of anger and frustration in the Arab world against the US, the result was an astounding 9.3!

That is a 41% increase over the pre-war level of 6.6 out of 10. It is probably safe to say that the level leading to 9/11 was much lower.

What to do?
In order to alleviate this building pressure of resentment at the United States we must make an effort to repair our relations.

Our final survey question may offer a ray of hope.

"Do you think that if the US forces Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian lands pursuant to United Nations resolutions and establish a Palestinian state that relations with the Arab world will improve?"

100% said yes