According to a recent poll, the United States is the single greatest threat to world peace today. As reported in Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research/Gallup International’s End of Year Survey — while the U.S. is seen as the nation most people would want to live in if they could — the U.S. was seen as the greatest obstacle to world peace, with 24 percent of all respondents singling out the superpower. Pakistan and China followed, at 8 and 6 percent, respectively.
Of all American respondents, 13 percent agreed with the assessment that the U.S. represents the primary global threat. In light of a year in which — through revelations revealed by National Security Advisor contractor Edward Snowden — the full extent of the American electronic surveillance apparatus was revealed, showing a highly developed network that covertly collected data from millions of Americans, from almost every nation and even from heads of state, many have grown to question the motives of the American government.
In recent years, the global opinion of the U.S. has increasingly grown worse. Many of the its peer nations — including Canada, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia and Brazil — have found the U.S. to be either the most-dangerous nation to world peace or the second-most to Iran. According to Pew Research’s Global Indicators Database, most of these nations had a favorability rating of the U.S. at or slightly above 50 percent for 2013.
Extreme political partisanship — which led to the first government shutdown in 17 years and the lowest rate of passed legislation in the history of the republic– and several messy international entanglements — including the recent buildup to war in Syria, which questioned U.S. motivations in the Middle East — have helped to sour the perception of the American government. This is particularly true among Americans themselves, who — according to an Associated Press – NORC Center for Public Affair Research poll — find that the American system of democracy needs “a lot of changes” or a complete overhaul.
Of all respondents, 70 percent feel that the government is incapable “to make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014.” While the poll has not recorded a majority of Americans feeling that the nation is heading in the right direction in a decade, the recent polling suggests a level of pessimism last seen under the George W. Bush administration.
An increasing number of critics are now arguing that America’s image problem lies with two problems: an inability by the government to multi-task and the growing impression that the government is using deceit and guile to hide illegal and/or immoral activities — especially from its own people.
A single-minded government
According to the AP-NORC Center’s “The People’s Agenda: America’s Priorities and Outlook for 2014,” one of the larger reasons for the American public’s frustration with Washington is the “one big issue” approach to legislation, in which politicians focus on a single issue — such as immigration, the debt ceiling or the budget — which the polls show the public is most interested in to debate.
“A society as large and complex as the United States faces many problems, and the country’s official institutions must prioritize some problems over others,” read the poll’s foreword. “Public opinion pollsters have long tried to inform policymakers and the media about which problems the public sees as most important, and political analysts have also tried to capture this information in order to understand the impact of important issues on political behavior.
“However, most polling that tries to measure issue importance tends to ask members of the public to choose just one “‘most important problem’ among many. This is often an unnecessarily difficult task, as government is generally able and even required to tackle many problems at once, all with a high level of effort. Citizens expect government to protect public safety at the same time as it seeks to improve economic conditions, and most citizens probably expect government to pursue both goals with equal enthusiasm,” the poll continued.
According to the poll, Americans feel that the government should give a great deal of attention to reducing the federal budget deficit (71%,) improving the way government functions (70%), improving the health care system (68%), protecting the future of Social Security (68%), reducing unemployment (67%) and improving the quality of education (62%). Generally, Americans expect Congress to address all of these issues at the same time in a manner that will produce a valid result.
A lack of confidence
The lack of confidence in the government’s ability to address the issues that concern the populate has — in turn — resulted in a de facto vote of no confidence against the Congress. According to the AP/NORC poll, 69 percent of Americans have little or no confidence that the Congress will take on health care reform in 2014; 64 percent have little confidence in the Congress’s interest in improving unemployment; 85 percent do not trust the Congress to fix the budget or the national debt, 75 percent immigration, 70 percent foreign policy, 63 percent education and 74 percent climate change.
This, taken in light of a deteriorating social regime, is given many legitimate reasons to be frustrated with Washington. A recent Gallup poll has found that worldwide the richest 3 percent of the population now controls 20 percent of the world’s combined household income. This is the same percentage the bottom 54 percent holds. In the U.S. and Canada, the top 4 percent and the bottom 54 percent each hold 20 percent of the nation’s household income. This represents an expansion of the wealth gap that has spread globally.
It has been said before that “where America leads, the world will follow.” This follows — as well — with America’s recent lack of political leadership. Without America creating a positive example at home on issues such as human rights, voting protection and civil protections, the nation’s leadership abroad on these issues sounds potentially hollow and even condescending.
“It’s hard to be the good guys when you are also the world’s biggest arms dealer and spend more money on defense than the next 15 nations combined,” wrote spiritualist Deepak Chopra in a blog for the Huffington Post. “But I think there’s a deeper ambivalence about decency in this country. In a decent society, do the following things happen? ‘Politics is rancorous and divisive, with each side demonizing the other.’ ‘In political races, the object is not simply to defeat your opponent but to destroy him?’ ‘Gun violence is rampant, and attempts to counter it can destroy a politician’s career.’ ‘The financial sector operates sheerly out of greed and takes no responsibility when its actions lead to economic collapse.’ ‘Corporations abandon health care and pensions for their workers.’ ‘The richest become richer while the poor become poorer.’”
However, many feel that these polls’ results do not reflect a flaw in U.S. policy, but the slings and arrows that comes from being “top dog.”
“One of the challenges of being a global power is that you have interests all over the world,” said Martin Edward, an associate professor for Seton Hall’s School of diplomacy and International Relations, to Mint Press News. “This inevitably attracts animosity.
“The thing to remember – while some citizens in some countries might view the U.S. government suspiciously, American values remain attractive ones, and this is an often underappreciated tool of U.S. influence.”
Defending aggression
While the values America preaches publicly may be honorable, in practice, many have found reasons to reject American morality — particularly, in recent months. Since the 1950s, the U.S. Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand — the “Five Eyes” — have monitored and analyzed foreign signals intelligence under the UKUSA Security Agreement, which dictates that a member of the “Five Eyes” cannot eavesdrop on another member. While the original scope of the program was to surveil the Soviet Union, this surveillance network expanded scope and size in 1981 under Executive Order 12333.
The surveillance network was expanded again in response to the 9/11 attacks and the perceived expansion of terrorism against the U.S. While many suspected that the surveillance mechanism in this country was massive, it was not until Snowden, an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, a NSA intelligence contractor, took thousands of pages of classified information and released it to Glenn Greenwald, whom — in a series of articles — revealed the grandiosity of America’s biggest secret.
With billions globally surveilled upon globally — including millions of Americans and a number of active and former heads of state, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel — the U.S. was caught not only invading the public’s privacy, but possibly lying about it as well. With the director of the NSA admitting that he lied under oath to Congress about the number of terrorist plots thwarted by NSA-gathered metadata, and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli misleading the U.S. Supreme Court about the use of warrantless wiretapping in criminal cases (the Justice Department has since changed its policy to reflect the solicitor general’s statements), many question the administration’s commitment to being forthcoming with the American people.
With questions continuing to be asked about U.S. aims in Syria and in the Middle East, in general, concerns about the U.S.’s continued role in Afghanistan and the U.S.’s continued use of unmanned drones, there is a concern that the U.S. can never regain the trust it was once bestowed. With the Congress actively debating sanctions against Iran — which is confirmed to not be actively making or pursuing nuclear weapons — the loyalties and motivations of the U.S. are being examined in a way not seen in modern remembrances.
It may be that the road forward toward resolving the nation’s trust issues abroad and at home is a commitment to honest communication.
“American citizens didn’t know what our own government was doing, nor did Congress, our proxy,” said Cynthia James, director of business development for Kaspersky Labs, a leading cybersecurity firm, to Mint Press News. “As reported in the Time magazine, when Bush approved the development of Stuxnet, and Obama approved the continuation of the program, they were both assured that no one would ever find out.
“Perhaps – as in a post-nuclear-capability world – with international trust basically obliterated at this point, especially with Snowden’s revelations about the U.S. tapping into Merkel’s communications, etc. – we will all have to start over. I would assume these conversations are already happening at the highest levels of international government … hopefully, the results will be shared eventually with the rest of us.”