Favorable views of the US have declined over this time in countries such as Great Britain (83% favorable in 1999-2000 to 40% in 2004), Germany (78% to 38%), France (62% to 37%), Morocco (77% to 27%), and Turkey (52% to 30%).  These are our allies.

Other countries with strong majorities saying our policies had made them feel worse were Norway (74%-3%), Japan (52% to 9%), Zimbabwe (62% to 9%), Kenya (56% to 23%), the Czech Republic (60% to 14%), and South Africa (48% to 26%).

The nerve of these people after all we've done for them.  And why does it matter whether people from other countries like us? This isn't a popularity contest, and our government can't do what's right for the American people based on polls from other countries.

          That's absolutely right.  Sometimes our leaders have to make choices that may not be popular in other peoples' eyes.  But the breadth and the depth of the dislike for our policies is pretty staggering.  The point behind these numbers that jumps out at me is that these are supposed to be our friends.  Most, but not all of these countries are democracies, inspired in many instances by our form of government to be so.  A good portion of these governments are center-right in ideology, as the pendulum swung during the Reagan/Thatcher years from Social Democracies to more conservative-leaning forms of government.  Keep in mind, though, that this is a pendulum.  As discontent with policies of the United States (by no means confined to Iraq) rises and festers in these countries, the pendulum is starting to swing back to the left.  Recent elections in Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Spain, and Argentina bear this out.  Voters in these countries are starting to elect governments that won't necessarily fall in lockstep with American policies.
          Take a look at what John Madison, one of our Founding Fathers, had to say about what they think:

Attention to the judgment of other nations is important to every government, for two reasons–the one is that, independently of the merits of a particular plan or measure, it is desirable on various accounts that it should appear to other nations as the offspring of a wise and honorable policy; the second that, in doubtful cases, particularly where the national councils may be warped by some passion or momentary interest, the presumed or known opinion of the impartial world may be the best guide that can be followed.

          There is a funny (or sad, depending on how one looks at it) political cartoon that sums up the arrogance of the "who cares what they think" crowd.  It shows Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld standing in front of a map of the world. Our country has the "US" marked on it, and every other country that is visible has "THEM" marked on it.  With the exception of Israel, this cartoon is beginning to come true.  It is important what they think because we need them right now to help us in our fight against terrorism.  John F. Kennedy said, "Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet.  We all breathe the same air.  We all cherish our children's future.  And we are all mortal." The planet is shrinking.  With the coming of great advances in technology and communications, we are more linked to all of the people on this planet than we ever have been before.  As has been proven so horribly, our mighty military seems helpless against determined and cunning foes willing to lose their own lives.  More importantly, there are other ways than just militarily to bring down an out-of-control empire.  Our economy is heavily dependent on the investments of many of the nations in the above surveys through the carrying of our national debt.  Make no mistake about it; we are heavily in debt, some $8 trillion at last count, a number that is all but incomprehensible.  A withdrawal or selling off of this debt would mean economic disaster for our country.  We are more vulnerable than we think.  I know that most people think this economic disaster could, or would never happen.  History has shown us a lot of things most people thought would never happen.  As this book is being finished, it is happening.
          The people of the world constantly hear our leaders speak of democracy and freedom, and then watch as we topple democratically elected governments overtly or covertly because they didn't jibe with our foreign policy. They hear our leaders speak of democracy and freedom, and they watch as we coddle dictators, corrupt monarchies and military juntas because they have something we want, or they will do our dirty work for us.  Some would say this is the way the world works.  Fine, but let's quit pretending that our nation's morals are the envy of the earth.  Again, people in other parts of the world understand the ramifications of our government's actions more clearly than most American citizens do.
          Along the way, our Goodness as a nation has been flaked off bit by bit like cheap paint on a nice car.  The problem is, everybody driving by us can see that, but we who are in the car cannot, and we keep driving along assuming that our car still looks shiny and new.  We think of ourselves as a Christian nation.  Statistics at least marginally bear this out.  Polls taken immediately following the 2004 election showed that "moral values" were the overriding issue that re-elected our president.  The overwhelming support of evangelical Christians is credited with the margin of George Bush's victory.  Unlike many places in the world, we as Christians can honestly say, this is our government.  We have an evangelical Christian for a president.  How is it, then, that we don't hold these elected leaders to a higher moral standard?

"Politics have no relation to morals."
          -Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

Well, he got me there.



          Many people in the US assume that the hatred of the American government around the world is for basically two reasons: one, our unflagging support for Israel, and two, because they are jealous of our prosperity and of our freedoms. While there is validity to both of these claims, especially the first (and especially among Muslims), I believe that the number one reason for the negative feelings is that the actions of our government don't come close to matching its rhetoric. While our actions have by no means been unique, it is our self-righteous proclamations of "freedom," "liberty," and "democracy," that have burned in the ears of the nations of the former Third World, especially those in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
          While American leader after American leader speaks of "self-determination" for all, the following are just some of the actions our government took to the contrary:

* The overthrow in 1953 of Mohammed Mossedegh, the elected Prime Minister of Iran, in favor of the previously deposed Shah; the British and the Americans were not amused that Mossedegh nationalized the oil industry, so they put a more pliant "leader" in charge.  (The New York Times ran an editorial on August 6th, 1954 that said this: "Underdeveloped nations with rich resources now have an object lesson in the heavy cost that must be paid by one of their number which goes berserk with fanatical nationalism.")

* The supporting, along with the British, of the overthrow in 1953 of the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Guyana, Cheddi Jagan, who lasted 133 days.

* The overthrow in 1954 of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, President of Guatemala, because he angered the United Fruit Company, Guatemala's largest landowner, by re-distributing some of the 70% of the land owned by 2% of the population to peasant farmers; there is a fine book on this unpleasant episode entitled Bitter Fruit, by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer.

* The two assassination attempts in 1959 and 1963 on Iraqi President Abdul Karim Qassim, who was subsequently executed in a coup in February of 1963; Tariq Ali writes about this and much more Iraqi history in his book, Bush In Babylon. 

* The involvement, along with the Belgian government, in the overthrow and assassination in 1961 of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the newly created country of The Congo;

* The alleged involvement in the overthrow in 1961 of Dictator Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, which continued a disturbing pattern of interventions in that sovereign nation; our government subsequently overthrew Juan Bosch, the first democratically elected President in the Dominican Republic's history, in 1962.

* In Haiti, we have since been involved in the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, not once, but twice, in 1991 and in 2004.

* The backing of the military coup in 1963 against Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam, who was murdered along with his brother.

* The supporting of a military coup in 1964 against Joåo Goulart, President of Brazil, because of his support of left-wing causes;

* The overthrow in 1965 of Sukarno in Indonesia and the installing of Suharto. This was one of the bloodiest coups of the 20th century.

* The backing by the CIA of the military coup of Greece in 1967. This coup was the subject of the Constantine Gravis film X. 

* Our government's involvement, specifically Henry Kissinger, in the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973, and the subsequent backing of one of the most brutal military regimes in modern times, led by General Augustus Pinochet.

* The support for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge from 1979-1983 in their struggle against the North Vietnamese; this was five years after the end of the Vietnam war. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, made Pinochet look like a Boy Scout.

* The support for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the 1980's, selling him a huge amount of weapons, conventional, and otherwise, before subsequently calling him the next Adolph Hitler;

* The support of brutal and repressive right-wing dictatorships in South Korea, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama; the latter was our buddy Manuel Noreiga, who was an ally until he suddenly turned into a corrupt drug-runner.

* The support of the mujahedin fighters in Afghanistan, including Osama bin-Laden, in their struggle against the communist regime backed by the Soviet Union; we're finding out right now how that turned out.

          This list is by no means comprehensive; on the other hand, I know there are reasons for these actions that I will never be fully aware of, or never completely understand.  Many of these actions by our post-World War II governments were taken under the backdrop of the Cold War, and should be viewed with that lens.  The aim here is not to present the United States as the Great Satan; these type of actions are all too typical of Great Powers throughout history, and certainly the Soviet Union was guilty of more than their fair share, along with being incredibly cruel to their own people.  The point here is what people around the world are thinking when they hear our president talk about freedom, and liberty, and self-determination.  They've seen all too many times that these wonderful words are backed up by our government only when it is in our best interests to do so.  This is not America bashing; this is telling the truth, and as sad as it is, it is necessary to know these things in order to put the feelings and actions against us in context.  There is precious little in our school history books about any of these events, obviously because they don't paint a pretty picture of the role of our government in them.  What happens as a result, though, is that we raise a nation of citizens in profound ignorance of the untidy things that our own representatives did on our behalf, even though they are common knowledge in much of the rest of the world.  We then act with righteous indignation when confronted with polls showing how deeply resentful the rest of the world is towards our government, because we naively maintain that if we are a nation of Good People, we must be acting as a nation for the General Good of All.
          Why teach high-school kids about these negative moments in our history?

You took the words right out of my mouth. You want to raise a whole new generation of America-bashing One-worlders?

Actually, I'd rather not raise another generation of ignorant cheerleaders for American exceptionalism.   A citizenry that is well informed about the good and the bad that their government has done in the past is better able to have informed opinions about the ramifications of the actions of the present, and the future.  For example, the kind of information presented here might make it easier to understand why more nations didn't rush to our side to topple Saddam Hussein.
          
          There is also a love/hate tug-of-war going on in many parts of the Developing World over what is sometimes referred to as our "cultural imperialism."  While there is nothing unusual in seeing young Arabs or Asians in Gap jeans drinking a Coke, listening on their iPods to Eminem on their way to see Lindsay Lohan's latest movie, this is a very disturbing set of conditions for many traditional tribal societies, especially the more conservative religious ones.  We are viewed from afar by such peoples as a degenerate society, rich and indolent.  Our sexual freedoms are watched with particular horror, while nonetheless offering the same temptations for Developing World men that they do in the West.  We see the covering up of women in the Muslim World as a lack of freedom for women; they see the complete uncovering of women in the West as barbarous perversion.  
          Furthermore, many of the people in these societies are rightfully confused when they see Christian missionaries get off the boat with a Bible in hand, preaching the righteousness of a Christian life, and then they see American businessmen get off of the same boat trying to sell them the cigarettes that they can't sell in America, Jack Daniels bourbon, pornographic and violent movies, and all manner of other decadent products.  To the people of these countries, our products represent the United States far more powerfully than Christian missionaries ever can.

Geez, we might as well drink the Jim Jones Kool-Aid as a nation right now!

          I realize that this sounds like doom and gloom negativity, but I feel it is vitally important for those that haven't considered these issues to understand the possible perspective of the average citizen from the other side of the world.  You don't hear much about this for the simple reason that no one likes to be the bearer of bad news, especially politicians of any stripe.  But as Christians, we must remember that in order to be equipped with the whole armor of God, as Paul urges in Ephesians 6:10-20, we must know the truth, even if the truth runs counter to the official story.  This is the only way we will truly be ambassadors of the gospel of peace.