The opinion research group, Pew Research Center, in its project on global perceptions, in late June published a public opinion poll on the United States taken in certain countries. Although the survey was, in general terms, to assess leadership in the world and some specific problems – for example, concerns about environmental issues – it is peculiar to see how certain European countries evaluate the United States. The study was conducted in 47 countries including several European nations. Besides Spain, Pew surveyed Poland, Italy, Bulgaria, England, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France and Germany. The countries with a more negative opinion of the United States are Germany (66%), France and Spain (both at 60%).

 

With respect to American ideas, values and customs, it is as follows: Among the 47 countries, the Spaniards are in seventh place when it comes to disliking American ideas about democracy. Nevertheless, in relation to what the research group calls “American exports”, there is a 72% of positive opinions about movies, television and music. 61% of Spaniards value favorably American science and technology. On the other hand, there is a poor 16% expressing positive views when it comes to the spread of American ideas. Out of the 47 countries, the ones with a worse opinion than the Spaniards on the same subject are Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, Pakistan, Indonesia and Tanzania. France and Germany have some more favorable data.

 

All this makes one wonder if many Spaniards have ever seen an American, or if they even know what American ideas are. The French data about this issue is somewhat better, perhaps due to a pair of cemeteries in Normandy that give an accurate impression about what “the American ideas on democracy” really are. In any case, Spaniards give the impression to believe that Americans are as depicted by the dominant media and have little interest whatsoever to know the facts. This consideration is apparently similar in the “heart of Europe” and perhaps one could suggest to the Pew Research Center that before they start a new poll, the first eliminatory question should be, “Have you ever seen an American, even if it was from afar?” Otherwise, we will only confirm something we have known for a long time – that, the ones suffering from anti-Americanism in Europe are the dominant media outlets and that the polls just mirror that bias.

 

“But when I began to find out about the United States, I discovered that it had nothing to do with what I had read or heard about it before. Not that it was something better or worse, but instead something more serious: It had nothing to do with it. It has been thirty-seven years since then, and almost everything said about the United States causes me the same impression. About America, with very few exceptions, the world is in a state of error.” Julián Marías, Una vida presente, Volume II, Alianza Editorial, 1989, page 19.

Faced with that state of error, let us describe in advance, what a foreigner usually sees when arriving to the United States. For starters, a big country where everything is big: the parking lots, the buildings, the schools, the parks, the shopping malls... America seems to expect achieving greatness in everything, even in what is accessorial. It is an enormously active country where everyone seems to be doing something, or is on his or her way to it. The nation has such extraordinary dynamism and activity conveying an unmistakable impression of freedom. It emerges as a solid and well-bonded society, proud of itself and confident. Surely, smiling is the norm for business relationships, but it extends to all other social activities. One deduces an extraordinary coincidence between the daily activities – including, naturally, work-related activities – and life’s vocational calling, something that reduces hostility and bad moods. Many people have a vacation-like, easygoing and spontaneous attitude. Are we so bothered by that?

 

It is frequent among Europeans – those who have ever seen an American from afar – to allege that all the previous assertions respond to a distinctive characteristic of American society called hypocrisy – and that, of course, it does not belong to any other one. It must be that Americans adopt the disposition described above just to fool outsiders, or one might think poorly of them.

 

Can it be instead that we think Americans are what some press correspondents say they are like?

 

Lately the Iraq war – or the European media’s interpretation of it – has somewhat altered our perception of the powerful nation. To be specific, in Spain people consider America the cause of a provocation that generated the biggest attack ever perpetrated in Europe. In the face of such deduction, one can only be amazed to still find around 30% of my fellow citizens with a positive opinion of the United States. Especially when finding Spanish media echoing certain topics is rather unusual. For example, the following ones:

 

The Democratic Party won control of the U.S. Congress in the 2006-midterm elections and the Party achieved it propped by war fatigue, something that European coteries had been reporting for ages. So much so that the media “committed” to that vision celebrated the event as a defeat of the Bush Administration. President Bush’s overall job approval rating is low. However, Congress, dominated by Democrats, is rated even lower.

 

On July 24, a CBS/New York Times poll – both companies of a liberal persuasion – found that the number of Americans supporting the Iraq invasion rose up to 42% from 35% since the last survey. The American newspaper, startled, did not have a better idea than to conduct another poll. The new poll confirmed the results of the first one. Its information role and editorial line were not having the desired effect.

 

The media in Spain have given scant information about the change of military strategy applied in Iraq since the beginning of this year. Gen. David Petraeus’s command reckoning with the new assessment – long advocated by the neoconservatives – that more troops were needed on the theater, has turned out to be effective. In addition, it must always be taken into consideration that they are facing an inhumanely ruthless and dramatic terrorist offensive. The most published line in Europe about Petraeus has been the misrepresentation of something he said about that a purely military victory in Iraq is impossible.

 

The authentic reality of that affirmation – that the anti-terrorist strategy must include conveying to the population that the Americans will win and that the Americans are the only ones ready to help – is giving good results in the Anbar province. As an example, one can see the collaboration of some tribes with the American Army – there, where al-Qaeda was considered the winning horse and the tribes did not dare to turn their backs on the terrorist organization.

 

We have not detected signs of commotion in Europe for the op-ed piece run in the (liberal) newspaper The New York Times published on July 30 by scholars Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the (Democrat) Brookings Institution. They state that:

 

“Viewed from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.”

 

It is aggravating that European free societies have not been able to provide complete and truthful information of what is really happening. Even more if that results in a spite towards the “American ideas about democracy”, being as it is, the first country on earth with a written democratic constitution. One might find some comfort in the thought that all derives from the capabilities for deceiving that today’s mass media enjoy; opinions would change if given the right conditions and a genuinely independent and unbiased press were born. In the meantime, I see no problem in that some people continue being more friends of Plato than of truth. Nevertheless, do not count on us.