Arabs: It's the Policy, Stupid [View All]

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Arabs: It's the Policy, Stupid

by Jim Lobe
If U.S. President George W. Bush thinks his "war on terror" is winning Arab hearts and minds, he should think about conducting it much differently than he has over the past two years...

Beginning with changing his policies.

That is the unavoidable conclusion of the latest two in a series of major surveys of public opinion in five Arab countries – all U.S. allies in the "war on terror" – released here Friday by the University of Maryland (UMD), the Arab American Institute (AAI) and Zogby International.

"Favorable attitudes toward America have dropped precipitously over the past two years," said AAI Executive Director James Zogby, summing up the results.

In contrast to the Bush administration's insistence that U.S. "values" and political ideals are behind the hostility, the findings also show that the Arab populations of Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) see U.S. policies in the Middle East as by far the main factor in fostering the Arab world's growing antagonism toward Washington.

"It's the policy, stupid," said Zogby, who added that when asked an open-ended question about what the United States could do to improve its image among Arabs, significant pluralities in each country called for Washington to either "stop supporting Israel" or "change Middle East policy."


http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=3162