Australians Fear the U.S.
Recently, the Lowy Institute for International Policy conducted a poll (.pdf) in its home country of Australia. The results were alarming.
“How worried are you about the following potential threats from the outside world?”
Those polled were equally worried with U.S. Foreign Policy as they were with Islamic Fundamentalists. Do they know what a Islamic Fundamentalist is? We’re talking the terrorists here. Apparently, the familiarity phenomenon is at work. What was once rare and striking is now common and accepted.
Recent foreign policy has America:
- Driving al-Qaeda from Afghanistan and returning the country to its people.
- Removing Saddam Hussein from power and returning Iraq to its people.
Yeah, I can see why they fear us so.
Attitudes of Australians are not a major concern, but it’s irrational to the Nth degree. There’s a greater chance that England will come back and reclaim their land than there is for any kind of U.S. involvement with the Aussie citizenry.
What this tells me is that their liberal media is succeeding in much the same way as ours. Marketing principles teach us that perception is paramount. So until the people of Australia stop believing the slants and half-truths put out by their media sources, they continue to believe America wants to rule the world.
Others see things a bit differently. Our thoughts are somewhat related as it’s our own media’s treatment of their poll that makes things look so dismal.
Not to worry. The good guys just won an election by a respectable margin.
In a parliamentary system the losers get to grouse. Their opinion will come to the fore.
Note that the Terrorism, Islamic Fundamentalism and Local Instability are more-or-less the same topic.
And note the plethora of recent poll abuse in the United States.
And finally, I who are the Lowy people?
Check out the article here here.
To summarise, in the author’s view, “the Lowy poll was full of fantastically loaded questions, which bundled up so many assumptions and gave the respondents such skewed and limited possible responses that its results are almost entirely worthless.”
You’re both probably right. Even though our International reputation isn’t what it should be, it’s not likely as bad as our MSM is claiming it to be.