How do our fellow Aussie mates regard those Yanks?
President George W. Bush’s trip to Australia this week has met with the usual grumblings about the Iraq war and global warming. But the media scrum obscures the largely positive relations between the two countries and the convergence of their foreign policy goals.
A study released last week from the left-leaning Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney shows that 60% of Australians have a favorable opinion of the U.S., while 76% think well of Americans. The Bush Administration comes in for a kicking, however: 69% of those polled say the President is the reason they have an “unfavorable” view of America.
Yet dig deeper and it’s clear that Australians and Americans share similar worries. Ninety-one percent think combating terrorism is “very important” or “fairly important,” and 83% are “very worried” or “fairly worried” about “unfriendly countries developing nuclear weapons.” There’s no illusion about Iran: 62% of respondents think Tehran’s enriched uranium program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
Australians aren’t shy to act, either. At a time when the Australian military is engaged in more conflicts than ever before, 70% of those polled still say their country should “promote democracy in other countries” and 91% support efforts to stabilize countries in the immediate vicinity.
Yet despite all this, Australia’s support of the Iraq war is fading — 57% of respondents said Australia shouldn’t be involved, up from 51% in 2005. Australia will hold national elections this year, and opposition leader Kevin Rudd, who’s ahead in the polls, supports a pullout. It’s a good bet that Mr. Bush’s trip will provide some clues about the future direction of this friendly, if complex, relationship.
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