World Opposed to Bush and Iraq War, BBC Poll Says

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 18, 2003

World Opposed to Bush and Iraq War, BBC Poll Says

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An international poll for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), aired by BBC Two television Tuesday night, suggested that a majority of people around the world took a dim view of the United States.

Nearly two-thirds of totally more than 11,000 respondents in 11countries said they had an unfavorable opinion of US President George W. Bush, according to the poll carried out by ICM and otherinternational pollsters.

The survey, for a television debate program called "What The World Thinks of America," revealed that 57 percent of the questioned had a very unfavorable, or fairly unfavorable attitude toward US President George W. Bush.

The figure rose to 60 percent when discounting the views of theAmerican respondents.

Over half the sample, including 81 percent of Russian respondents and 63 percent of the French response, felt that the United States was wrong to invade Iraq.

Thirty-seven percent thought it right to invade, including 54 percent of the UK response, 74 percent of the US response and 79 percent of the Israeli sample.

Asked who is the more dangerous to world peace and stability, the United States was rated higher than Al-Qaeda terrorist networkby respondents in both Jordan (71 percent) and Indonesia (66 percent).

America was also rated more dangerous than two countries considered as "rogue states" by Washington.

It was rated more dangerous than Iran, by people in Jordan, Indonesia, Russia, South Korea and Brazil, and more dangerous thanSyria by respondents in all countries except Australia, Israel andthe United States.

The survey groups were also asked whether they felt that the American military did enough to avoid civilian casualties during conflicts.

The answer: 70 percent of the group as a whole thought the United States could do more -- with the majority in each country bar the United States saying that more could be done, including 73percent of respondents in Britain, 74 percent in France and 57 percent in Israel.

However, 70 percent of the American respondents said other countries did not appreciate how much America did to avoid civilian casualties.

The sample also showed negative attitudes about American initiatives, such as the war on terrorism and US efforts in the Middle East.

Attitudes toward America as a whole, however, were a lot more favorable, with half of them expressing fairly or very favorable views, as opposed to 40 percent of unfavorable views. This figure excludes Americans polled.

All interviews, gauging opinion toward US military, economic, cultural and political influence, were carried out in Australia, Canada, Brazil, France, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Korea, Britain and the United States during May and June 2003.

Broadcasters in all the involved countries, including ABC in the United States, collaborated on the program, with some panelists joining the debate through satellite links.

Following BBC's airing, broadcasters in other countries will show the program over the coming weeks.

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