Muslim countries view the United States as ruthless and arrogant

A poll done in nine Muslim countries shows the US to be viewed as "ruthless, aggressive, conceited, arrogant, easily provoked and biased [in its foreign policy]" and that Britain, "America's closest ally in the war against terrorism, comes off only slightly better than the US," a Financial Times report said today.

Asked about the poll today, US President George Bush said "I saw that -- briefly looked at it. I haven't analyzed, you know, the sampling and who was asked and all that stuff. But here's my attitude: If the United States shows strong leadership when it comes to fighting terrorist organizations, the world will follow. And if we're determined and resolute at routing out murderers and killers, people who want to destabilize legitimate governments, the world, regardless of the nature of their population -- the religious nature of their population -- will respect that."

Bush said, "we've got to do a better job of telling the story," speaking about the US humanitairan aid he added, "We're the largest supplier of help and food and medicine in the world."

"I can give you one good example of how we, perhaps, can do that," he said. "Colin Powell went on interactional MTV, and the first question he was asked, by a lady from Brazil -- and I'll paraphrase -- was basically, Why is the nation of America so evil? And it floored him, like it would floor most Americans to think that people would think of our nation as evil, when, in fact, defending freedom is good."

"So we've got work to do," Bush said. "And people will realize we're peaceful. Yet we're determined and patient. And we use our strength for positive reasons."

The poll results were shared with the US government. The New York Times had most recently reported that "Many administration officials worried that the United States was losing support in the Islamic world after American warplanes began bombing Afghanistan in October." and that "Those concerns spurred the creation of the Office of Strategic Influence," an office that its controversial mission has been scrapped according to official sources.

The New York Times report indicated that US officials see a need to establish greater influence on the international public "particularly as Washington broadens the war on terrorism beyond Afghanistan."

77 per cent in the poll thought the military action against Afghanistan was unjustified. "In five of the countries, more condemned the military action than condemned the September 11 attacks," the Financial Times report said.