Bush’s Austria Trip Has Underscored Just How Much Europeans Dislike The U.S. President

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1346834...

America’s Bad Rep
Bush’s Austria Trip Has Underscored Just How Much Europeans Dislike The U.S. President
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey, Newsweek

Updated: 6:47 p.m. ET June 21, 2006

June 21, 2006 - Good news can fade fast. Last week George W. Bush enjoyed a slight bump in the polls-and, perhaps more importantly, a morale boost-with news of the death of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, a surprise trip to Baghdad and word that Karl Rove will not be charged in the CIA-leak investigation. But as Bush arrived in Austria on Tuesday night, the world looked very different. Although he’s the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country in 27 years, one of the first things Bush saw from his speeding motorcade was a group of protesters flipping him the finger and struggling to unfurl a massive handmade sign. GO HOME, it read.

Indeed, Bush’s public-relations problems back home are nothing compared to his unpopularity here in Europe. Ahead of Bush’s whirlwind visit to Vienna-where he is meeting with leaders of the European Union-and Hungary, recent surveys show disdain for Bush and Americans in general are at all-time highs. A survey released last week by the Pew Research Center found that, with the exception of Great Britain, a majority of Europeans polled have a mostly unfavorable view of the United States.

Yet it’s more than just simple dislike. A Harris Interactive/Financial Times survey released Monday found that 36 percent of Europeans view the United States as the world’s greatest threat to “global stability.” By comparison, 30 percent of those polled named Iran as the biggest threat, while 18 percent named China.

In Austria, that unpopularity is particularly acute: a recent poll by the Vienna-based News magazine found that 72 percent of those surveyed found Bush to be unlikable and a danger to world peace. Throughout the city’s downtown area, lampposts and tree stumps have been plastered with anti-Bush signs. One features a black-and-white photo of Bush waving, with the palms of his hands stained blood red. On Wednesday, several thousand people marched near Bush’s hotel to protest his visit during a rally that featured an appearance by Cindy Sheehan, the U.S. antiwar activist whose soldier son was killed in Iraq.

But it’s not just the American president feeling the brunt of unpopularity here in Vienna. When a group of reporters attempted to hail a cab outside the Hilton Vienna hotel (where the White House press corps is staying) on Tuesday night, one driver waved the group off with a string of anti-American expletives. Calling Bush a modern-day “Hitler,” the driver told the reporters they were “nasty Americans” and said he wouldn’t permit them to step foot into his car.

Why do Americans have such a bad rap in Europe? While a significant percentage of people continue to oppose the war in Iraq, the outrage seems more centered these days on other developments, including incidents of prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, charges of a civilian massacre in Haditha and the “renditions” of terror suspects to secret CIA prisons to countries outside the United States.

There has been particular outrage at the continued operation of Guantánamo Bay-a topic that was front and center during Bush’s summit with EU officials on Wednesday. After last week’s suicides at the prison, several EU leaders-including Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, president of the EU-pressed Bush to either charge detainees or release them and close the facility. “For the United States, a country committed to freedom, the rule of law and due process, [Guantánamo] is an anomaly,” Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said last week.

Such complaints threatened to undermine the administration’s stated agenda for the trip, which was for Bush to make nice and highlight areas of agreement with Europe. After a rocky first term marred with spats over Iraq and other policies, Bush has made a concerted effort this second term to reach out to European leaders in hopes of overcoming his image among foreign leaders as a go-it-alone cowboy. The outreach efforts are particularly crucial for the administration as Bush prepares to lose one of his key allies in the region: British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is expected to step down next year.

At a press conference after Wednesday’s meetings, Bush acknowledged differences between his administration and Europe, particularly over Iraq. “But what’s past is past,” the president said. Acknowledging the concerns he’d heard about Guantánamo, Bush spoke of his “deep desire” to close the prison, telling reporters, “I’d like it to be over with.” Yet Bush gave no hint of an agreement on the issue, saying he wasn’t ready to release “cold-blooded killers.” “They will murder somebody if they are let out on the street,” he insisted. “[We are] not going to let out people on the street who will do you harm.”

Near the end of the media availability, an Austrian journalist asked Bush about the negative image America has in Europe. As the reporter ticked off stats and poll numbers about the nation’s bad reputation, Bush pursed his lips and appeared to redden. “I thought it was absurd for people to say we are more dangerous than Iran,” Bush replied, offering a rare public acknowledgment that he’d read his own poll ratings.

“Look, people didn’t agree with my decision on Iraq, and I understand that. For Europe, September 11th was a moment; for us it was a change of thinking,” Bush said, insisting that he’d made decisions in the “best interests” of the United States and the world. “I believe when you look back at this moment, people will say, ‘It was right to encourage democracy in the Middle East’.”

Pointing to the polls, Bush said, “People will say what they want to say, but leadership requires making hard choices based upon principle and standing by the decisions you make. And that’s how I’m going to lead my country.”