Foreign views of the US

Analysis: The Puzzling Impact of Obama's 'Glasnost' - Ernest Corea, Global Perspectives · Kommunikation Global:
http://www.global-perspectives.info/news/news.php?key1=2009-08-24%2008:16:00&key2=1

"The Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project 2009 interviewed 26,397 people in 25 countries in the period May 18-June 18, 2009. Here's the Pew Project's snapshot of how the world views America in the time of Obama:

'The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama. In many countries opinions of the United States are now about as positive as they were at the beginning of the decade before George W. Bush took office.' … Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut … pointed out … that Obama's popularity as recorded in a number of countries across the globe cannot be discounted. He felt that Obama's popularity would persuade foreign audiences to listen to what America has to say. This, one should add, is a great change from reactions across a wide swath of the world's population to US public diplomacy in most of the preceding years." Image from

The Pakistani People Are Our Friends? Really? - Ampersand, Alas, a blog!
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/08/25/the-pakistani-people-are-our-friends-really/

: "Back in February, Dave Kilcullen said this in his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2009/02/crunch-time-in-afghanistanpaki/

[']All this suggests that the most appropriate diplomatic strategy is to identify, within Pakistan, our friends and allies (civilian democratic political leaders, some officials, and much of the Pakistani people) … ['] . Kilcullen is an actual expert who has been to the region, so it’s likely he knows something I don’t. But I find that claim more than a little odd. Contrast what Kilcullen is saying to this news story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/world/asia/20holbrooke.html?_r=3&hpw

[']After Ms. McHale, the Obama administration’s new under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, gave her initial polite presentation about building bridges between America and the Muslim world, Mr. Abbasi thanked her politely for meeting with him. Then he told her that he hated her. 'You should know that we hate all Americans,'

Ms. McHale said Mr. Abbasi told her. 'From the bottom of our souls, we hate you.'['] According to a Pew poll,
http://pewglobal.org/database/?indicator=1&survey=10&response=Unfavorable&mode=chart

68% of Pakistanis have an unfavorable view of the United States. In fact, of the countries Pew surveyed, there are only four where the US is more hated. If our strategy in Pakistan depends on much of the Pakistani people being our 'friends and allies,' then we’re in deep trouble. (Don’t get me wrong, I’d like ordinary Pakistanis to be friends with America. But for the most part, they’re not.)"