Americans think Bush riles terrorists
By Edward Alden, Financial Times

Most Americans think the U.S. administration's aggressive military pursuit of the war on terrorism has made further terrorist attacks more rather than less likely, according to polls released this week before Thursday's second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

SIXTY-FOUR PERCENT of respondents said that the U.S. military presence in the Middle East increased the likelihood of terrorism, 77 percent thought there were widespread negative feelings towards the U.S. in the Islamic world that enhanced terrorist recruiting, and 54 per cent thought the US had been too assertive in its foreign policies.
In addition, 81 percent thought a key lesson of September 11 was that the U.S. needed to work more closely with other countries to fight terrorism, up from 61 percent in a similar poll more than a year ago.

The findings were part of a comprehensive survey of U.S. foreign policy attitudes released this week by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (Pipa) at the University of Maryland.

"I don't think there's a desire to simply disengage," said Steven Kull, director of the program. "But there's a feeling that the U.S., in a unilateral mode, is playing too dynamic a role."

An ABC News opinion poll this week showed similarly rising skepticism about the wisdom of the war in Iraq. Forty-eight per cent of Americans now thought the Iraq war had increased the risk of terrorism against the U.S., while 40 percent thought it had decreased the threat. Those findings were far more pessimistic than a similar poll in April after the U.S. military victory, when only 29 percent thought the Iraq war would make terrorist attacks more likely.

President George W. Bush's administration is trying to persuade Congress and the American people to back a long-term effort to transform Iraq, including $87 billion in new spending for next year alone. The surveys reveal a deep ambivalence in the U.S. about that project.

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