Does the US have a bad reputation with the rest of the world since the war in Iraq?

Lazergazer

Ever since the inception of the United States in 1776 it's been trying to make an impression on the world stage whilst trying as much as possible not to get it's hands dirty. Very much like any super power for the last 600 or so years at least. There seems to have to always be a hate figure and I think that at the moment the U.S. Govt. certainly deserves that label. As a non-conforming Brit, I try not to single out Americans that I meet, but I find that the majority of the ones I have met are the product of the system that they are brought up in, as most people, generally, all are. I hope that eventually we, as a race, can escape the bonds of nationalism/fundamentalism/extremism that hold some of us down, but hold all of us back.

What we dislike in the US:

- no respect of international institutions
- unable to use diplomacy
- unrealistic targets
- not able to acknowledge when they are wrong
- inconsistencies
- "me alone any only me" mentality
- anti intellectualism

And finally a bad habit to stay in the way of everything that could improve our world, being environmental protection, human rights, fight against poverty, etc.

Oh and I forget that it is a cast society where the poor and uneducated are being used to keep the powerful empowered in return of which the powerful keep the plebeians in a state of fear.

Is it better to be loved or to be feared?
- Was Machiavelli wrong after all?

vimesfan01

Wasn't all that great to begin with, but Bush didn't help.

Quincy S

I don't think it helped. People don't "hate us for our freedoms" or hate us because we are American. They hate us abroad for our foreign policy. Many people believe that we have an imperial agenda; that we want to rule the world. Whether or not that is true is irrelevant, others believe that it is; and perceptions mean everything. So, I don't think that the Iraq War helped put those abroad at ease about our foreign policy. Then the lack of evidence of WMDs or Iraq harboring terrorists made those impressions even worse.

I think more importantly, it hurt perceptions of the US among our allies. That has more of an impact, for me personally, than the perceptions of those who didn't really like us anyway. So, again I really don't think that the War in Iraq helped us make any new friends. What happens in the future with Iraq will help determine the ultimate impact of this war and it's impact of our perceptions abroad.

Richard_SM

Are you kidding?

No one has any respect for America anymore. It's a rogue.

Do you want a list :

1) "You're either with us - or against us" statement
2) Iraq has chemical/nuclear/biological weapons. It didn't.
3) Support for Israel who continue to ignore UN Resolutions
4) Complete failure to take part in Kyoto.
5) Detention of prisoners without trial for 5 years.
6) Treatment & humiliation of prisoners - Abu Ghraib & Guantanamo Bay.
7) Cause of economic crisis.
8) Russia offers reconciliation - disbands Warsaw Pact. USA doesn't reciprocate. Instead makes matters worse.
9) USA richest country - BUT bottom of the league for overseas aid. Yes bottom.
10) Any overseas aid it does give generally has to benefit an American compny. So the money doesn't benefit the poor country $ for $.

Bush has shown the world - America can't be trusted.

Just look at the answer from "GO NAVY". Complete nonsense.

Most Def

The US has a bad reputation since bush and all the nonesense he's been up to. Just u wait though when Obama is in its all gonna change.

adrianakate

a lot of people outside the us thinks were all ignorant stupid and stuck up. =/
and they HATE bush (which i cant blame them for)

Kevin S

pretty much since bush came into power he made us seem like the bully of teh wold, and then teh war didnt help at all.

bluebell

Yep. Here in Ireland anyway. It's not the ordinary US people that are bullies, most are great friendly folk (we have only met a few who think they can dictate to us) but the US government seem to think nuclear capability should be forbidden to everyone outside US, and that it is alright to kidnap people off the street for extraordinary rendition or other questionable practices. We are hearing rumours that they are going to compulsorily regulate farming practices by Dec.31, 2009, via a group called Codex Alimentarius. Their official website is www.codexalimentarius.net

From http://www.naturalnews.com/024128.html
The most dominant country behind the agenda of Codex is the United States ...... Many of the countries who wish to participate and want to voice their opinions are not allowed to attend the Codex meetings as the U.S. denies most visas for these representatives
* All dairy cows are to be treated with Monsanto's recombinant bovine growth hormone.
* All animals used for food are to be treated with potent antibiotics and exogenous growth hormones.
* The reintroduction of deadly and carcinogenic organic pesticides that in 1991, 176 countries (including the U.S.) have banned worldwide will be allowed back into food at elevated levels.
* Dangerous and toxic levels (0.5 ppb) of aflotoxin in milk produced from moldy storage conditions of animal feed will be allowed. Aflotoxin is the second most potent (non-radiation) carcinogenic compound known to man.
* Mandatory use of growth hormones and antibiotics on all food herds, fish and flocks
* All nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are to be considered toxins/poisons and are to be removed from all food because Codex prohibits the use of nutrients to "prevent, treat or cure any condition or disease"
* All food (including organic) is to be irradiated,
* Nutrients allowed will be limited to a Positive List developed by Codex . All other nutrients will be prohibited nationally and internationally to all Codex-compliant countries
* All nutrients (e.g., CoQ10, Vitamins A, B, C, D, Zinc and Magnesium) that have any positive health impact on the body will be deemed illegal under Codex
* You will not even be able to obtain these anywhere in the world even with a prescription.
* All advice on nutrition (including written online or journal articles or oral advice to a friend, family member or anyone) will be illegal.
* Worldwide implementation of unlabeled GMOs into crops, animals, fish and trees

Worrying stuff. We have natural food here and like it that way.

We don't want to be bullied into this by anyone.

stephen m

Yes it very much is. They dont like anything we've done after 9/11. I went to Italy about 3 weeks ago and just told everyone I was Mexican(my heritage) because I saw other tourists being treated poorly at restauraunts, hotels, bars etc. They wont outright say anything rude to Americans, but they'll tend to treat you like they dont really want you there.

bill

Nope.Just since George Bush(pick one).

Dazed and confused

Not at all!

The U.S. has had a bad reputation with the entire world much before Iraq and probably even before Vietnam.

iltmaemc

Since the 1970's people outside the US mistrust the US.
becuse the US is the Bully of the world.

lovingmomhappykids

Lets be clear I am an American and I love my country. But I have traveled and I know people from every courner of the world. And I know why people dislike the US. And there is a good reason. SInce the cold war the US foreign policy has been toxic and adverse the constitution and American values.

Yes the reputation of the US has been hurt, and Yes there were those who did not like the US before. The reputation of the US has been dropping since the cold war. People who think that there is no reason for this dislike clearly have no understanding of Cold War Politics and how othe countries were used to fight the cold war for us. Most people in the US have some foolish idea that the cold war was just a "war of words". But it was a WAR and millions of people did fight and DIE in it. Americans were just usually not the ones doing the fighting. Russia would pay a county a huge amount of money to put a base in one country as a position to shoot a warhead at the US and promise protection and the US would do the same with the country next door(usually in the middle east or asia near Russia). Those two countries would end up at war, backed by the military personal and US trained and Paid mercinaries. Then the cold war ended. Suddenly the American pulled out the mercinaries were out of a job. But sadly most of the wars and tensions that occured during that time did not go away so quickly. The promises to protect their Allies dried up when the US no longer stood to gain. Iraq and and all the torture has only confirmed in people's mind that the US government is not about morals, but about taking care of Number 1. It is ok to be an opportunist, manipulative country, but you should not expect people to like you.

Try just for once to Look at it from the side of someone who lives in another country. Only one country has ever had been sooo crass as to use Nuclear weapons. Hiroshama and Nagaski are still devistated. And I doubt the millions of innocent people who died think that a diliberate attack on the citizen population was "acceptable collatoral dammage". Yet the only country who has used the weapons, thinks it is moral enough to say who can have nukes and who can not. It is hard to see the US from the outside in, but if you try, I think you will understand why the world does not view the US as a Friend but as a bully. Of course there will always be those who want to come here because there is money to be made, and the laws do protect the people here, the US system of justice is still great. But sadly those laws do not protect those outside the US and the government has taken due advantage of that.

Tara

Let's be honest, Americans have not exactly been popular with foreign nations from the beginning of time. That doesn't mean that I agree with the war. I'm just saying that I'm not so sure that the world-wide perspective of Americans has changed.

SOLDER

yes they do, USA are the real terrorists, they are paying terrorist groups in Iraq to kill each other, like they did in the IRAQ IRAN WAR, THEY GAVE WEAPONS TO BOTH SIDES.

Saundra N

Hi i'm from the UK. I don't think that people outside of the US dislike the country or the American people per se. There is not a lot of support for the war in Iraq here in the UK - however, like myself most people I know fully support ALL the Servicemen/Women who are currently serving in that country. They are there doing their jobs and facing enormous dangers everday. I think people on this side of the pond do not have a lot of time for your President and believe that he and his policies are too unstable. As to some countries boycotting US products - I have not heard of or experienced this in the UK. At the end of the day - the US and UK have always been friends and allies. From a personal viewpoint I hope this will always continue as I trust America more than a lot of other countries I could name.

Ray.Returns

I lived over the pond during Jimmy Carter when Iran held Americans hostage for 444 days they liked old jimmy but they would say ''they have your people and you can do nothing ha ha he he'' This is not new it just louder
Don't go by Yahoo in person most are really polite little guys

ruthaford_jive

That's what I constantly hear...

rare2findd

well yes of course.

alpla

It's like the rivalry of the poor relatives and the rich. The poor hate the rich for being so.
Add a touch of superiority most Americans display in other countries and voila!

wild-man of Borneo

Sure.
Why not?
Look in the real world.
Decode this lyrics " Say you say me"
How they live in misery at loss and blurred on what went wrong out there in time.
Leviticus 26.32, 36-37
With self lack of knowledge without being aware of the dead Mummies risen up from the graveyards of failures and horrors of the past from the twilight zone with two stiff hands stretching out all pointing towards them creaking and rattling with whiff of rotten stench of empty skeleton of skull and bones with two empty eye sockets blindly searching their way back to the pyramids in Egypt who was at loss and stranded in different time zone in moving backwards in time with self lack of knowledge without being aware of it being expose in time.
Luke 6.39-40,41-45,46-49
What do you think?

cortex_disconnect

Yes, it is true. The vast majority of the world supports Obama over McCain, so hopefully getting Obama into the presidency will help repair our image.

elo2joe

Americans invade an Innocent country with lies about weapons of mass destruction just to steal their oil.These people had nothing to protect them selves other than their strong spirit.But don,t worry bush will not have to face a court for war crimes.America will never invade a country that can fight back.
Hope this answers your question.

MiKe

YES, defiinitely. Its funny how the world gets out help but they hate us.

robert c

No!

Rommel

Britain's reputation is in tatters too. but then! Tony Blair's deliberate and calculated lies have so far caused the slaughter of over five hundred thousand innocent people....when the world sees some animal walk free from some thing like that.....well how do you think they feel. it sickens even the British that Blair isn't being held to justice. he lied...the war was illegal. it was all nothing but a con trick to set up a base from which to protect Israel from Iran. i suppose we 'as people should not allow our governments to get away with deliberate deception like that. after all they do these things in our name. if the US, 'like Britain' has ended up with a bad reputation because of the war with Iraq then its well deserved. Blair and Bush need to be brought to justice to show the world that the people of Britain and America are not to blame. untill that happens, untill we force a trial for war crimes....then we are condoning the action, and there for as guilty as our leaders.

SARA*KW

The way I look at it is you cant blame the entire country for something a crazy little man did. Its not entirely their fault, they obviously thought he would do well in power, but he's a **** up. There are some people who think what this man is doing is right.. and they are also bullies.
You cant blame everyone.

Im from Canada
Ciao !

ps. help me out
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuFgMYVo1.YL.16vuLr8sovsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20081019193504AAkhCZV

Beyond brainwashing

No it had it before it!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a7t8uVrGhoI

STEELERS

Among foriegn citizens yes, Goverment no.

nevercheese5

i'm an Indian in america and what people think the united states is, is totally wrong....the thing is people look at bad things more than good things, in fact when i actually opened my mind up to actually see what are stereotypes and what are not i actually saw that what people call stupid pop cultured idiots are actually smarter than most of the people in my homeland. indian is just better at math, the thing is there are so many stupid immigrants that came to america and took it's score down, and I think that american foreign policy was bad but Obama has woken up the country

HumorMe

America is not bad. Generally, We are kind and helpful. It's definitely America's foreign policy that's tarnishing its image abroad. Personally, I think America gets involved in things it has no business in being. But then it might hav smthng to do with maintaining the number 1 spot. Say NO to war.

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