Washington's Grim Performance in the Middle East

WASHINGTON -- Like everyone else in the world, Americans care about how they are perceived by others. Unlike most other countries, though, the United States is characterized by three distinct attributes: It is the world's single most powerful country; it uses its economic, military and diplomatic power to try and change conditions around the world for the better (to promote freedom, democracy and prosperity, it says); and it is widely disliked and feared in many parts of the world.

How those three attributes relate to one another remains an enduring issue of debate here in Washington and around the world. Is the widespread criticism the United States elicits a function of the Bush administration's policies, or is it a structural problem that any global power is fated to suffer, mainly due to envy?

More and more global polling data helps us clarify this. The just released Pew Global Attitudes Project's seventh global poll since 2002, covering 24 countries, shows that the Iraq war since 2003 still gives the United States a negative image abroad, in the Arab-Islamic world and also among some Western European allies (France, Germany and Spain). Iran also was viewed negatively, so Washington is in good company.

Positive views of the United States have increased sharply in a few countries (Tanzania, South Korea, Indonesia, China, India, and Poland). In about half the countries, favorable views of the United States have increased modestly in the past year. Partly this reflects positive expectations that American policy will improve when George W. Bush is no longer president -- dubious cause for celebration in the White House.

In the case of the Middle East, the US image problem seems anchored in its policies, not envy of its status. Take a look at the tattered balance sheet of where Washington has succeeded or failed in its goals, and what impact its policies have had on the Middle East.

In only two and a half areas has the United States clearly achieved its Mideast policy goals: preventing another major terror attack on American soil; promoting more liberal economic policies, including more free trade agreements with Arab countries; and, implementing the international tribunal to try those to be accused of assassinating Rafik Hariri and a dozen other public figures in Lebanon (this is only half a success because Syrian influence in Lebanon has not been eliminated).

In virtually every other area, Washington's Mideast policies have failed to achieve their goals, or have backfired spectacularly and made things worse for US interests and allies. 

Democracy promotion has led to a regression in democratic freedoms in most Arab countries and Iran, causing most native democrats in the region to shun any involvement with the United States. To make democracy promotion with American assistance a dangerous endeavor for Middle Easterners is an astoundingly amateurish foreign policy.

Washington's pressure on Syria and Iran has not caused either of the latter to change their policies significantly, but rather has prompted them both to become more defiant. Iran is developing a full nuclear fuel cycle, and who knows what Syria is trying to do behind the scenes. Worse yet for Washington, its close ally Israel has ignored its advice to boycott Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas, and instead Israel has entered into negotiations with all three of them simultaneously (and wisely so, given the ineffectiveness of Washington's sanctions-based approach). The Israeli-Hamas ceasefire announced this week is good news for both sides, and a gigantic bellyflop for Washington. 

The Islamist movements the United States has actively opposed -- including with military force by US proxies -- have become stronger in recent years, politically and militarily. Hamas and Hizbullah have both forced Israel to accept cease-fires in recent years, and play major roles in governing their countries. The conservative Arab leaderships that are central allies to the United States remain in autocratic mode, often losing ground at home to Islamist, tribal, nationalist, democratic and other forces. Iran continues to make inroads among Sunni and Shiite Arab groups. 

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan did overthrow the previous regimes, but did not replace them with stable democracies, and led to a significant increase in the power of Islamist groups close to Iran, or warlords, or narcotics syndicates. 

Terrorism in the Middle East is worse now than it was seven years ago. Arab-Israeli peace-making remains flaccid, while Israeli colonization continues apace, oblivious to US rhetorical slaps on the wrist. The United States has steadily marginalized itself as a diplomatic actor and mediator, where once it was the central protagonist. And, the oil-based energy world is in shambles, along with the US' own economy, heavily due to American war-mongering and destabilizing activities in the Middle East.

The list of American foreign policy failures and weaknesses in the Middle East is long, and grim. People in the region notice, and they react critically when a major power helps to make their societies increasingly violent and dysfunctional, adding fuel to the fire of the Middle East's own intemperate statehood and mediocre governance systems.