LAST week the International Business Times reported:?In their annual End of Year poll, researchers for WIN and Gallup International surveyed more than 66,000 people across 65 nations and found that 24% of all respondents answered that the US is the greatest threat to peace in the world today.Pakistan and China fell significantly behind the US on the poll, with 8 and 6%, respectively. Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea all tied for fourth place with 4%.
For those of us who believe the opposite namely, that the US is the worlds greatest force for peace (and liberty) an explanation of this poll is called for.
Here is my explanation:
Much of the worlds moral compass is broken. The moral north reads south and the moral south reads north.
IN a world of such loathsome and barbaric regimes as North Korea, Iran and Syria; with Chinese nationalism rising to chauvinistic levels under a communist dictatorship; with Russia under Vladimir Putin seeking to recreate the Soviet empire and silencing critics, sometimes through murder; with the totalitarian murderers of the Taliban about to retake much of Afghanistan; and with Islamic terror producing atrocities almost daily, it is the US that is voted the greatest threat to peace.
NOT the Chinese regime that still venerates Mao Zedong, the greatest mass murderer in history; that continues to crush Tibet, one of the worlds most ancient countries and cultures; that squelches liberty and arrests and tortures dissidents; and that is engaged in a massive military buildup.
Not Iran, which is governed by a regime that has repeatedly called for the extermination of another nation; that tortures and kills dissidents on a daily basis; that is the greatest supporter of terrorist movements; and that is building a nuclear weapon.
Not the Taliban, which, when in power, gave safe haven to Osama bin Laden, the worlds most lethal terrorist; which murders girls who attend school; and which murders aid workers who inoculate Afghan children against polio.
Not nuclear North Korea, the worlds largest concentration camp, which regularly threatens its neighbors.
Not Islamic terror groups, the greatest murderers of innocent people in the world today.
UNFORTUNATELY, the poll results are not surprising.
First, while individual human beings do enormous good, mankind has always been morally unimpressive. In terms of moral judgment, we should expect little from the majority of the human species.
Second, the worlds news media are responsible for this perception of America. Almost every major news medium on earth is either center-left or left. And the left around the world loathes America.
That the polls results are synonymous with the lefts perception of America is also shown by another result of the poll:
A plurality of people polled in several officially American-allied nations also rated the United States as dangerous.
Thirty-seven percent of Mexicans and 17% of Canadians view their neighboring country with suspicion on the world stage. A surprising 13% of American respondents rated their own nation the biggest threat to world peace as well.
Who are these Mexicans, Canadians and Americans? They are leftist Mexicans, leftist Canadians and leftist Americans.
Third, there is a morally flawed understanding of peace. In much of the world, peace has been so narrowly defined as to be morally irrelevant.
It essentially means not having troops fighting in a foreign country.
Thus, because the US has troops fighting in Afghanistan and recently had troops fighting in Iraq, it is considered a threat to peace.
But Iran, with no troops on foreign soil, is not considered a threat to peace, even though it sustains terror movements, murders its own people, seeks to annihilate Israel, props up the mass murdering Syrian regime and is rapidly developing a nuclear weapon.
It is only according to this definition of peace that states like Iran, North Korea and China states that stay in power through violence are not deemed threats to peace.
Finally, here are two questions that should make clear the moral absurdity of the polls results:
Would the world be more or less peaceful if only America disarmed?
Would the world be more or less peaceful if only America were armed?