Have you seen that bumper sticker yet? Pretty funny.
Sadly, what's not funny is that America's prestige in the world has collapsed under the Bush administration. World opinion polls show that America's greatest assest, world leadership and respectability, has taken a huge hit in recent years.
From BBC:
The view of the US's role in the world has
deteriorated both internationally and domestically, a BBC poll suggests.
The World Service survey, conducted in 25 nations including
the US , found that three
in
four respondents disapproved of how Washington has dealt with Iraq.
The number of those who said the US was a positive influence in the world fell in 18 nations polled in previous years.
In those countries, 29% of people said the US had a positive influence, down from 36% last year and 40% two years ago.
But among Americans, the number of those who viewed
their country's role positively fell to 57% - six percentage points
down from last year and 14 percentage points down from two years ago.
...
From Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek:
Bush's administration talks constantly about its "freedom agenda" and
interprets global events largely in such terms. Last summer, for
example, as missiles, car bombs and IEDs exploded across Lebanon, Gaza
and Iraq, Condoleezza Rice described the violence as the "birth pangs"
of a new, democratic Middle East. So it is striking to read this year's
annual survey of "freedom in the world," released last week by Freedom
House, a nonprofit that is engaged in promoting democracy around the
globe.
The report points out that 2006 was a bad year for liberty, under
attack from creeping authoritarianism in Venezuela and Russia, a coup
in Thailand, massive corruption in Africa and a host of more subtle
reversals.
"The percentage of countries designated as
free has failed to increase for nearly a decade and suggests that these
trends may be contributing to a developing freedom stagnation," writes
Freedom House director of research Arch Puddington in an essay released
with the rankings. Puddington also calls attention to the "pushback"
against democracy. Regimes across the world are closing down
nongovernmental organizations, newspapers and other groups that
advocate for human rights. And, I would add, what is most striking is
that these efforts are not being met with enormous criticism. Democracy
proponents are on the defensive in many places.What
explains this paradox—of freedom's retreat, even with a U.S.
administration vociferous in promoting democracy? Some part of the
explanation lies in the global antipathy to the U.S. president.
