2004: OMG! Bush has turned the whole world against us! 2012: Who cares about them.

The hypocrisy from the disgusting and pathetic Left is immeasurable.



U.S. drones deeply unpopular around the world

Animus toward American aggression is widespread and sustained in the Muslim world



<p>Last night I <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/what_might_cause_another_911/singleton/">wrote about</a> how Obama’s drone attacks and other forms of militarism in the Muslim world are making another Terror attack on U.S. soil more likely, while my <em>Salon </em>colleague Jefferson Morley <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/06/13/survey_us_drone_program_unpopular_overseas/">documented</a> the mass political instability those policies are spawning. A newly released international <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/06/13/global-opinion-of-obama-slips-international-policies-faulted/">polling survey</a> from the Pew Research Center sharply underscores both points.</p>
<p>The new multi-nation poll finds that “in predominantly Muslim nations, American anti-terrorism efforts are still <strong>widely unpopular</strong>.” Beyond Muslim nations, “in <strong>nearly all countries, there is considerable opposition</strong> to a major component of the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policy: drone strikes.” Specifically, “in 17 of 20 countries, more than half disapprove of U.S. drone attacks.” As usual, “<strong>Americans are the clear outliers </strong>on this issue – 62% approve of the drone campaign, including most Republicans (74%), independents (60%) and Democrats (58%).” But in every other surveyed country besides India (which naturally supports any attacks in Pakistan), more people disapprove of Obama’s drone strikes than approve, usually by very wide margins. Indeed, “the policy is unpopular in majority Muslim nations, but also in Europe and other regions as well”; specifically, “at least<strong> three-in-four [are opposed] in a diverse set of countries</strong>: Greece (90%), Egypt (89%), Jordan (85%), Turkey (81%), Spain (76%), Brazil (76%) and Japan (75%).”</p>
<p><a style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h3uoXuvBt4s/T9h_lHQx8hI/AAAAAAAABDY/R4bBJ4mWTsE/s1600/pew.png"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h3uoXuvBt4s/T9h_lHQx8hI/AAAAAAAABDY/R4bBJ4mWTsE/s640/pew.png" alt="" width="395" height="640" border="0" /></a></p>
<p>Just as is <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/06/10/obama_defender_rep_peter_king/">true in the U.S.</a>, Obama — revealingly and unsurprisingly — finds ample support for his policies among the European Right, with substantial opposition on the Left. “A majority (56%) of those who describe themselves as being on the political right in Britain favor U.S. drone strikes against extremists, but just 31% on the left agree.” And “a similar gap emerges in France, where about half of those on the right (49%) approve of the drone attacks, compared with about one-quarter (26%) among people on the left. Double-digit differences are also found in Italy, the Czech Republic and Germany.”</p>
<p>It’s an article of faith in many progressive circles that Obama has “restored America’s standing in the world” — they’ll just state it as though it’s gospel — but it’s patently untrue. While it’s true that Europeans and citizens of long-standing American allies such as Japan and Brazil generally view Obama far more favorably than they did George Bush (though far less so than was true in 2009), and the U.S. continues to be viewed favorably in the West, the perception of the U.S. in the Muslim world is as bad as, or even worse than, the lowly levels of the Bush era:</p>
<blockquote><p>In a number of strategically important Muslim nations, <strong>America’s image has not improved during the Obama presidency</strong>. In fact, America’s already low 2008 ratings have slipped even further in Jordan and Pakistan. . . .</p>
<p>There is little support for Obama, however, in the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed. Fewer than three-in-ten express confidence in him in Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Jordan. And roughly a year after he ordered the Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden, just 7% of Pakistanis have a positive view of Obama, the same percentage that voiced confidence in President George W. Bush during the final year of his administration. . . .</p>
<p><strong>In nearly every country where trends are available, support for Obama’s international policies has declined over the last three years</strong>. . . . . The U.S. receives many of its lowest ratings in predominantly Muslim nations. Among Muslim nations, the median has slipped from 34% to 15%. . . . Fewer than one-in-five have a positive opinion about America in Egypt (19%), Turkey (15%), Pakistan (12%) and Jordan (12%)</p></blockquote>
<p>This is all consistent with <a href="http://www.salon.com/2010/08/05/muslims_3/">numerous</a> <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/07/13/arabs/">other</a> <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/egypt_12/">international polls</a> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/arab-worlds-views-of-us-president-obama-increasingly-negative-new-poll-finds/2011/07/12/gIQASzHVBI_blog.html">showing</a> the U.S. under Obama as being deeply unpopular in the Muslim world generally and specifically in the region’s most strategically significant nations <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/egypt_12/">such as Egypt</a>; not only has there been little improvement since the Bush era (with very few exceptions), in some cases the U.S. is mildly more unpopular now in that region. Notably, China is <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/06/13/chapter-4-rating-countries-and-institutions/">vastly more popular</a> than the U.S. in the Muslim world.</p>
<p>This isn’t the by-product of some sort of reflexive, irrational anti-Americanism. In fact, there is <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/06/13/chapter-2-attitudes-toward-american-culture-and-ideas/">substantial favorability</a> toward American cultural influences and political ideals, including in the Muslim world (especially among younger Muslims). The cause of this anger is clear and rational; as even a <a href="http://www.salon.com/2009/10/20/terrorism_6/">Rumsfeld-commissioned 2004 study</a> explained: “Muslims do not ‘hate our freedoms’, but rather they hate our policies.”</p>
<p>Fortunately, caring about international opinion — like so many other things — is so very 2004, especially in Democratic Party circles (notwithstanding the fact that, as that Rumsfeld-era report documented, anti-American animus arising from American aggression is the greatest security threat and the prime source of Terrorism). Who cares if virtually the entire world views Obama’s drone attacks as unjustified and wrong? Who cares if the Muslim world continues to seethe with anti-American animus as a result of this aggression? Empires do what they want. Despite all this, these polling data will undoubtedly prompt that age-old American question: <em>why do they hate us</em>?</p>

 

The fruitcake Obama Cult cares more about Dear Leader than anything:



How Drones Help Al Qaeda

By IBRAHIM MOTHANA
Published: June 13, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/opinion/how-drones-help-al-qaeda.html?_r=2

“DEAR OBAMA, when a U.S. drone missile kills a child in Yemen, the father will go to war with you, guaranteed. Nothing to do with Al Qaeda,” a Yemeni lawyer warned on Twitter last month. President Obama should keep this message in mind before ordering more drone strikes like Wednesday’s, which local officials say killed 27 people, or the May 15 strike that killed at least eight Yemeni civilians.

Drone strikes are causing more and more Yemenis to hate America and join radical militants; they are not driven by ideology but rather by a sense of revenge and despair. Robert Grenier, the former head of the C.I.A.’s counterterrorism center, has warned that the American drone program in Yemen risks turning the country into a safe haven for Al Qaeda like the tribal areas of Pakistan — “the Arabian equivalent of Waziristan.”

Anti-Americanism is far less prevalent in Yemen than in Pakistan. But rather than winning the hearts and minds of Yemeni civilians, America is alienating them by killing their relatives and friends. Indeed, the drone program is leading to the Talibanization of vast tribal areas and the radicalization of people who could otherwise be America’s allies in the fight against terrorism in Yemen.

The first known drone strike in Yemen to be authorized by Mr. Obama, in late 2009, left 14 women and 21 children dead in the southern town of al-Majala, according to a parliamentary report. Only one of the dozens killed was identified as having strong Qaeda connections.

Misleading intelligence has also led to disastrous strikes with major political and economic consequences. An American drone strike in May 2010 killed Jabir al-Shabwani, a prominent sheik and the deputy governor of Marib Province. The strike had dire repercussions for Yemen’s economy. The slain sheik’s tribe attacked the country’s main pipeline in revenge. With 70 percent of the country’s budget dependent on oil exports, Yemen lost over $1 billion. This strike also erased years of progress and trust-building with tribes who considered it a betrayal given their role in fighting Al Qaeda in their areas.

Yemeni tribes are generally quite pragmatic and are by no means a default option for radical religious groups seeking a safe haven. However, the increasing civilian toll of drone strikes is turning the apathy of tribal factions into anger.

The strikes have created an opportunity for terrorist groups like Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Ansar al-Sharia to recruit fighters from tribes who have suffered casualties, especially in Yemen’s south, where mounting grievances since the 1994 civil war have driven a strong secessionist movement.

Unlike Al Qaeda in Iraq, A.Q.A.P. has worked on gaining the support of local communities by compromising on some of their strict religious laws and offering basic services, electricity and gas to villagers in the areas they control. Furthermore, Iran has seized this chance to gain more influence among the disgruntled population in Yemen’s south.

And the situation is quite likely to get worse now that Washington has broadened its rules of engagement to allow so-called signature strikes, when surveillance data suggest a terrorist leader may be nearby but the identities of all others targeted is not known. Such loose rules risk redefining “militants” as any military-age males seen in a strike zone.

Certainly, there may be short-term military gains from killing militant leaders in these strikes, but they are minuscule compared with the long-term damage the drone program is causing. A new generation of leaders is spontaneously emerging in furious retaliation to attacks on their territories and tribes.

This is why A.Q.A.P. is much stronger in Yemen today than it was a few years ago. In 2009, A.Q.A.P. had only a few hundred members and controlled no territory; today it has, along with Ansar al-Sharia, at least 1,000 members and controls substantial amounts of territory.

Yemenis are the ones who suffer the most from the presence of Al Qaeda, and getting rid of this plague is a priority for the majority of Yemen’s population. But there is no shortcut in dealing with it. Overlooking the real drivers of extremism and focusing solely on tackling their security symptoms with brutal force will make the situation worse.

Only a long-term approach based on building relations with local communities, dealing with the economic and social drivers of extremism, and cooperating with tribes and Yemen’s army will eradicate the threat of Islamic radicalism.

Unfortunately, liberal voices in the United States are largely ignoring, if not condoning, civilian deaths and extrajudicial killings in Yemen — including the assassination of three American citizens in September 2011, including a 16-year-old. During George W. Bush’s presidency, the rage would have been tremendous. But today there is little outcry, even though what is happening is in many ways an escalation of Mr. Bush’s policies.

Defenders of human rights must speak out. America’s counterterrorism policy here is not only making Yemen less safe by strengthening support for A.Q.A.P., but it could also ultimately endanger the United States and the entire world.

Ibrahim Mothana, a writer and activist, is a co-founder of the Watan Party.