US: Americans are anxious about the direction of US foreign policy and how the country is perceived overseas.
A majority believe the government has been too quick to go to war, a survey released this week showed.
"Contrary to conventional wisdom that the American public doesn't know and doesn't care how it is seen abroad, strong majorities" believe the US image overseas is suffering and "large majorities are worried about it", the survey said.
Some 63 per cent of Americans say the charge that the US has been too quick to go to war is justified. Three-quarters worry about losing trust abroad and about the hatred of the US in Muslim countries. "Public thinking is a disquieting mix of high anxiety, growing uncertainty about current policy and virtually no consensus about what else the country might do."
The national survey of 1,004 American adults was conducted between June 1st and June 13th by Public Agenda, a non-profit organisation dedicated to public policy research, in conjunction with Foreign Affairs magazine, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations. It is to be the first in a series of surveys to measure long-term US thinking on foreign policy.
Public Agenda's chairman Dan Yankelovich declined to describe the results as a reprimand of the Bush administration but said "there is definitely . . . a feeling that we're not on the right track".
The survey found that attitudes "are reaching a point where the public's concerns will be too strong to be ignored".
Some 64 per cent of respondents said the US government should put more emphasis on using diplomatic and economic methods to fight terrorism and 72 per cent said that showing more respect for the views and needs of other countries would enhance US security.
However, the public also believed in the US as a force for humanitarian good, with 83 per cent giving it high marks for helping other countries during natural disasters. - (Reuters)