Friends 4 Ever

I recall many non-American friends giving the benefit of the doubt to Americans prior to the second Bush election. Some said that if Bush won a second term, if Americans hadn't figured out what an incompetent and dangerous boob he is, that all bets were off. There was still goodwill, but it was wearing thin. New polls suggest that it has dissolved like rice paper.

See here. I've excerpted a bit (my bold script), but there's more.

America's image problem is pervasive, deep and perhaps permanent, analysts say -- an inevitable outcome of being the world's only superpower...

Polls now show an ominous turn. Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in countries like Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think Americans are honest.

"We found a rising antipathy toward Americans," said Bruce Stokes of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which interviewed 93,000 people in 50 countries over a four-year time span.

The dislike is accelerating among youth, Stokes said. For instance, 20 percent of Britons under age 30 have an unfavorable opinion of Americans, double the percentage of 2002.

The problem, Stokes said, "is Americans, not just (President) Bush."

Stokes and his colleagues at the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan public opinion group in Washington, found that fewer and fewer people see the United States as a land of high ideals and opportunity. More than half those asked in France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Britain said the "spread of American ideas and customs" was a "bad thing."...

Keeping the peace, winning the war on terrorism and other critical goals are achievable "only if people like you and trust you," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center...

Asked where to find the "good life," no more than one in 10 people recommended the United States in a poll conducted in 13 countries, Kohut said. More popular: Canada, Australia, Britain and Germany. Only in India did the United States still represent the land of opportunity, he found...

But calm! At least we care enough to go to the time and effort to find out in a poll that we're not liked (invasion schmasion!, torture schmorture! schpying! schnitzel!), unlike... THE FRENCH.

No question this is bad news -- but put it into perspective, urged Richard Solomon, the veteran diplomat and negotiator who is president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a federally funded think tank.

"It's an attractive aspect of our culture that we worry about what other people think," Solomon said. "The French couldn't care less if they make people unhappy."