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U.S. Policies Played "Significant Role" in Terror Attacks: International Poll
PARIS, Dec 20 (News Agencies) - World opinion leaders feel that Washington's policies contributed to the deadly September 11 attacks, while strongly supporting the U.S.-led war on terrorism, according to a new survey in 24 countries.
The poll of 275 opinion leaders, published in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune Thursday, revealed that a majority of non-U.S. respondents felt that Washington's policies had played a significant role in fueling terrorists' anger against the United States.
The poll findings suggest "that much of the world views the attacks as a symptom of increasingly bitter polarization between haves and have-nots," the paper said. "The danger for America is that its overwhelming power is feeding resentment, in the same countries that also feel they are missing out on the spoils of economic progress."
While around six out of 10 non-Americans believed that the U.S. was doing the right thing in fighting terrorism, that support tumbled when the question of possible U.S.-led attacks on Iraq, Somalia or elsewhere was raised.
Although 50% of the Americans polled said the military action should be broadened to other regimes allegedly supporting terrorism, only 29% outside the U.S. agreed.
Asked if many or most ordinary people would consider U.S. policies to be "a major cause" of the September 11 attacks, 58% of non-U.S. respondents said they did, compared to just 18% of U.S. respondents.
The poll, conducted by the paper and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, also highlighted a large gap between the way Americans believe they are seen abroad and the way others say they view the United States.
Samuel Wells, associate director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was quoted as saying that Americans were relatively unaware of how many Muslims "were terribly upset at the carry-over from the Gulf War," including the continued U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf.
Not one American respondent believed that the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan would be widely considered as an over-reaction, while over 40% of non-Americans, and 63% in Islamic countries, did.
"Americans believed powerfully that resentment of their country's overarching power is the chief reason they are disliked," the paper said. "Nine in 10 [Americans] listed that factor first.
"They saw U.S. support of Israel as the second leading factor, with seven in 10 naming it," the paper added. "Yet, barely over half of non-Americans listed resentment of U.S. power as a major reason for disliking the country, and only three in 10 cited U.S. support of Israel."
Far more important, in non-American eyes, is the sense that the United States bears some responsibility for the gap between the world's rich and poor.
A total of 52% of respondents said that the world's wealthiest country do far too little to help the least-advantaged, citing that as a major cause for dislike of the United States.
Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Center, noted as particularly striking the finding that two-thirds or more of respondents in every region outside the United States said it was "good that Americans now know what it's like to be vulnerable."
Former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright said that result was "clearly the most disturbing part of this," but added that such a response may be an unavoidable side effect of the end of the Cold War.
Albright said it was "human" for people to resent "the big guy on the block".
The polling revealed a strong sense around the world that the events of September 11 had opened a new chapter in world history; that nothing would again be the same.
The paper said the pollsters had conducted interviews, between November 12 and December 13, with "275 influential people" in politics, media, business, culture and government, 40 of them in the United States and 235 in 23 other countries.
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