CAIRO: Seventy-eight percent of Egyptians believe that the US is “hypocritical because it does not follow the international laws it promotes in other countries, a recent World Public Opinion poll showed.
The poll also showed that 62 percent of Egyptians believe that the US abuses its power to serve its own interests, leaving only 34 percent saying that the US more often treats Egypt fairly.
The World Public Opinion Organization, a collaborative research project involving research centers from around the world and managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland, released the poll on July 7, 2009 and surveyed 19,923 respondents in 20 nations that comprise 62 percent of the world’s population.
While people in 13 nations say they have confidence in President Barack Obama, the US foreign policy continues to receive heavy criticism. “The US is criticized for coercing other nations with its superior power, failing to abide by international law, and for how it is dealing with climate change, the study said, “Overall, views are mixed on whether the US is playing a mainly positive or negative role in the world.
In all but four nations – Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey – a majority or plurality says that the US is generally cooperative with other countries.
Diaa Rashwan, political analyst at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said, “There have been numerous occasions in the Middle East where the US could have stepped in and done something if their objective was really to spread democracy, however they chose to step aside and do nothing about ‘their cause’ in the Middle East and this was very clear to all citizens around the world.
Surveyed countries included China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Russia as well as Mexico, Germany, Great Britain, France, Poland, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kenya, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, and South Korea. Polling was also conducted in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
Most people around the world seem to have a positive view of the young new captain at the helm of the American ship of state, though many people see this huge ship as still carrying forward domineering policies, commented Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org on the poll.
