America's image has been "Bush Whacked". It is not hard to see that Bush is the most hated person in the world.

Remedy: 1. Impeach Cheney/Bush. This is the only way America can regain any lost ground.

2. Elect a woman or a minority to the presidency or a combination of the two to show that the conservatives are being suppressed.

3. End the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and put a muzzle on Israel.

4. Decrease carbon emissions.

5. Abolish the CIA, NSA, etc..

6. Etcetera, etcetera and so on and so forth,

"Leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who challenge the existing order found few admirers..."

With regard to Chavez, this is not what the survey, found here: http://pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/256.pdf says at all! Among the odd collection of leaders in the survey, he rated pretty well - certainly far ahead of Bush.

I haven't crunchhed the numbers yet, but, qualitatively, the results appear to be:

Angela Merkel, the clear leader;
then, close results between:
Hu Jintao
Hugo Chavez
Vladimir Putin
then:
Ahmadinejad; roughly tied with,
Bush; then,
Bin Laden (not a national leader at all, and suspiciously placed in the order of questioning just before Ahmadinejad and Chavez)

As the t-shirt you can get from FAIR says:

"DON'T TRUST THE CORPORATE MEDIA"

"2. Elect a woman or a minority to the presidency or a combination of the two to show that the conservatives are being suppressed."

If you can find a female or minority Kucinich then I'm all for it, but otherwise Clinton/Obama is just going to be mostly a disappointment administration for us because they pretty much are conservatives.

thanks, PJD. i was suspicious of Chavez being so ranked. pew certainly knows that framing has a lot to do w/surveys and that the juxtaposition of ahmadinejad, chavez, bin laden would skew the results.

U.S. image slipping? Gee, I wonder why????

Albright is a woman who found it acceptable that 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 lost their lives directly due to US driven sanctions against Iraq during the Clinton regime. Clueless.

"The international system as we know it has broken down, according to these numbers," said former Secretary of State Madeline Albright at a press conference unveiling the report. "It's kind of a sense of nihilism."

Am I interpreting this wrong? How exactly has "the international system" and not the american government broken down, according to these numbers? How, alternatively, is it not actually a good thing that people are changing their minds about the american empire, about globalization and global warming? It is not "nihilism" to go against the "great american empire."

This clearly shows the need for more U.S. generated media to spread the word that "we care".

We can light the way for these people if they will only give us a chance.

It's all you Common Dreams peoples' fault! If you would just quit being negative about the future. Now look what you did! This is going to cost the taxpayer hundreds of barrels of ink and a lot of broadcast time to fix this perception!

To wdmax3: If you would allow, I wish to add, do not invade/start a war, nuclear or conventional with Iran. We have had more than we can stomach of lies and distortions of reasons for bellicosity. If the US wants Iran to stop their nuclear program, fine, then maybe it should show the way and rid itself of not only its existing stock, but of the planned replacements for the over 10,000 and up the US has in its arsenal.

It's clearly time to share the wealth, and that means rich countries stop living in ridiculous and disgusting extravagance and using the poor for cheap labor and forcibly extracted natural resources.
In this country, before the Reago-Bush era, we were headed in that direction... but the doublespeak 'Reagan-Bush Revolution' used media and government to push us back into dumbot consumerism and mammonism of the Harding-Coolidge-Hoover era.... and must of us fell for it.
Now the poorer countries are getting fed up with it (which includes neo-colonialism) and are empowering themselves. Bush is trying to destroy the poor countries via the fake 'war on terrorism' to try to maintain Superpower extravagance at the expense of third world poverty, and subvert the United Nations with planted puppets.... so he and his friends can live just like daddy and grampa Precostt the Nazi did.
The continuation of crass materialistic values, greed, and shallow consumerism will only perpetuate the problem.... and materialistic pseudo-religions/cults/churches are not the solution either.
We need to pick up part of the thread that was blossoming in the 1970s, but without the drug culture (which was started and cultivated by the CIA to undermine the movement for social change -- read about MK-Ultra).
Integrate spiritual practice with daily life... the religious rituals on the weekend aren't worth a pee.
Build Co-ops and monitor them closely so they are not sabotaged from within (as they were in the past). Use alternative exchange methods outside money (and not controlled by yuppies who skim a profit). If you are independent, charge income-sensitive rates so as not to further the privileges of the oligarchy. Be compassionate to those who understand it, but be hard-nosed with the jerks (who have amassed lots of power and money now).
The lesson of the 70s is that you have to be vigilant against sabotage by the Establishment.
Make the rich pay, which means pay back what they have built up by using the rest of us for cheap labor to drive up their investment ratios.
Take back our schools, our hospitals, our public media networks, our democracy, our government, and stop believing the LIE that "Privatization is inevitable".
Call back the spirit of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Give 'em Hell Harry. Remember the spirit of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King and other decent REAL AMERICANS like them.

2 Goose2:
"What exactly did Prescott do to make him a Nazi? Does anyone know what he really did?"

Prescott Bush, together with his associates brothers Dulles (both John Foster - Secretary of State and Allen -CIA chief, were involved in bringing back Shah in 1953, which is at core of current crisis) were managing German industrial properties for IBM, Ford and bunch of others, who bought it on cheap (actually for nothing) during German hyperinflation in 1920s). In order to secure good return on money, Germany should be brought to order. Thus, it came to their financing of National Socialist Party with anticipation to channel their energy to the East. Prescott Bush kept dealing with Nazis up to 12/07/41 and stopped only after FDR promised to put him in jail for high treason. Those were the days indeed.

60 years later Bush family more than succeeded. But they should be overoptimistic: Muse Clio has very subtle ways to punish Her enemies.

in the early 70's i lived in Kabul, Afghanistan for 4yrs. 99% of the people were very friendly but that other one percent were not. they spit on me or swore at me but were never a threat. thanks to Bush and his band of thugs, those people that spat on me would now cut my throat. and that's pretty much the rest of the muslim world would treat the Americans. It's a shame. Bush has isolated our country from all the others, except maybe China. but that's what he announced when he was selected as president(what a joke), that he was an isolationist. the guys such an idiot i doubt if he can write his name correctly. well the people that voted for him and his thugs are nothing but traitors to the founding fathers of the USA. Bush and his thugs are nothing but war criminals, like his buddy Kissinger, Rumsfeld,Wolfowitz,Feith, Pearl and let's not forget the president of the senate or is it the vice-president. He's put us back fifty years and he's still got plenty of time to push the button and start the end of the world to bring Jesus back. In this country and all others, bush and his thugs are nothing but a joke. and the people who voted for him are just as stupid. the truth hurts, doesn't it.

Let us review the four counts against the persons at Nuremberg:
1. Conspiracy against world peace
2. Planning, unleashing and executing an aggressive war
3. War crims and offenses
4. Crimes against humanity

laddy June 28th, 2007 9:45 pm
DITTO.....

I had a similiar experience in the late 70's in Kashmir and Ladakh and Jammu....

Bush is a cultural vacuum and rather than expand his knowledge of these ancient regions BushCo just wants to destroy/nuke them.....

In Iraq, the most ancient part of civilization.... BushCo's handiwork could be described as cultural VANDALISM.....
To say the least....

@ Laddy: Bush is an isolationist. He has managed to isolate nearly every country that used to like the US. Who needs enemies with presidents like yours?

May be so but that hasn't kept illigals from crossing the border from Mexico.

"Its not that difficult to figure out why America has such a low standing in the world folks."

I follow your argument, but I am still wondering why it is an issue what America's "standing in the world" even is? Why does it matter what public opinion is in another country? I have seen the US image go up and down before, it happens. When we have a new pres and admin in 2008 it will change again and presumably go up. In the mean time, why does it matter?

I ask this question seriously as everyone seems to take it as such an important issue, but I don't really know that it is. Venezuela and the US don't seem to get along but in the first 6 monthd of this year they provided 11% of our oil without any complaints. Our trade with France has doubled since 1996 in the Clinton administration and is currently at about 5.5 billion$ a month and it was about 2.7 in 96. Our trade with Germany is 12 billion$ monthly and that rose from about 6 billion$ monthly in 1996. Trade with China is about 30 billion$ monthly now and was about 2 - 4 billion$ in 1996. (source US Census Foreign Trade Statistics)

In travel from the rest of the world to the US, visitation from Western Europe was up 18 percent in March 2007 and 10 percent in the first quarter. Eastern European arrivals, up 12 percent, continued double-digit growth from late 2006. German, French and Italian arrivals were up 20 percent, 35 percent and 11 percent, respectively, for the month, continuing a growth trend from late 2006. German, French and Italian visits are up double-digit so far this year. Irish and Spanish arrivals jumped 44 and 42 percent, respectively, in March. (Source Office of Travel and Tourism industries)

Our films, foods, resources all of them are being bought overseas. We travel and vacation over there. I have been abroad in 2 countries this year and although people told me they were upset with the admin or the US in general, most of them seemed to be planning a trip here or talking about their last trip here.

I don't understand what the practical effect of people not liking one country or another really are. No one is going to war with us over this other than the people that already were and the ones that seem to make the most cogent, coherent arguments over us are our biggest trade partners and are even becoming MORE economically integrated with us.

A vague or even strong feeling that we are not liked is simply that, a feeling. No practical fallout on a large scale so why the absolute dire predictions that this is the beginning of the end for the US.

WHY DO WE CARE WHO LIKES US OR NOT WHEN THEY TRADE WITH US?

"grampa Precostt the Nazi did."

What exactly did Prescott do to make him a Nazi? Does anyone know what he really did?

"But is it really necessary to have your homeland laid waste to, to be able to grow up and start TALKING instead of BOMBING?!? If necessary, Russia and China would surely comply."

Well said. I am tired of infantile preaching about "We the People" too. If Bush has called the American Constitution "piece of parchment", it is only because it is. In fact, Bush happened to be the most truthful president in recent history, who delivered on all his promises:

1. He reduced taxes (for rich);
2. He united people (against America);
3. He does not do nations building (only destruction);
4. He also did isolationism (of the whole of USA from the rest of the world).

30 years ago when the first refugees from the USSR came to these shores many an American wondered, Why, if life is that awful under Communists, Soviet people did not vote them out of power? Such a question was laughable then and it is laughable now as well, this time with regard to ability of American people change their corrupted system by simple vote.

Hundred years of witch hunting – Red Scare in 1920s, McCarthyism, New Deal bashing, liberal bashing, and socialism/communism bashing on top of that – turned the US in civil desert. Instead, Christian Taliban, Free-Market Grand Delusion &c are flourishing as such similar out of this world cults has been flourishing at End Times at the very turn of all of previous history. Christian sects at the dusk of the Roman Empire, Spiritualism at the dusk of the British Empire, and now the current crap at the dusk of the current Empire, the list go on. There is nothing new under the Sun, no matter how hard American Exceptionalists try to pitch their product.

So ask not for who the bell tolls. It tolls for sightless and mindless. For American nation is not ready yet to U-turn peacefully; if not Russia or China, then somebody will comply.

Most of these findings were predictable, especially the poor image of the US and China. The people of most countries feel impotent in the face of the disproportionate clout and seeming invulnerability of these giants. What surprised me is the poor image of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, to me a true hero. He shows remarkable pluck in standing up to Bush and emphasizing his commitment to a redistribution of wealth to enable the common people to share more equitably. Viva Chavez!

Are americans really that sure, that it is only their president that makes their country the world's bully? Are they really delusional enough to consider themselves prepared to pay more for less so the rest of humanity has the same possibilities of a decent life? I'd imagine that when put at a crossroad of choosing either sustainability and cooperation on one hand, and exploitation and favorable inequality on the other, vast majority would still employ the "might makes right" argument in proving there is no need to feel pity for those who sew high-end clothing all day long to be only able to feed their children a fistful of rice. Neither would anyone else that has it made, i'm sure. But NOBODY else (talking about developed nations) seems capable of electing a christian taliban, bent on armageddon, rapture, second coming etc. to office TWICE! And NOBODY else makes weapons industry (think Ike) the backbone of economy and leaves a large part of young boys' population with no other choice other than joining the army or doing time. And that's what scares me. The world has had enough of violence and segregation that causes it. That goes for the countries that have experienced it themselves, of course. But is it really necesarry to have your homeland laid waste to, to be able to grow up and start TALKING instead of BOMBING?!? If necessary, Russia and China woud surely comply, provided that fallout could somehow be eliminated. Would it make the world a better place? Funny to think, but the first to benefit would probably be americanse themselves. At least the majority who's votes hopefully didn't count the last two times. If they did, (alpha male in the sky) help us...

I notice the negative comment about Hugo Chavez isn't backed up with any evidence, probably because it's BS. But to the extent it's true, it's due to the lying damn mainstream US and some of the other mainstream Western media following US mainstream liars misleadership.

CrackerJack69 June 29th, 2007 6:49 am

This may be waaaay out there beyond credible belief or even off the planet....

However, ephemerally supporting your anti MSM stance....

The numerology of "Fox" news is 666....

"Leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who challenge the existing order found few admirers."

Yeah, sure -- except for 70% of their own populations, who are united behind their leaders in their animosity for the American empire.

CRACKER JACK:

Vidal and Chomsky are alive and well, and working politically.

See your library catalogue, www.chomsky.info.