THE LATEST Sunday Tribune/Millward Brown IMS opinion poll puts numbers behind a sentiment that many American university students expressed to me during their backpacking trips through Ireland last summer. The poll proves four out of five Irish people believe that the policies pursued by US president George W. Bush have made the world a more dangerous place. He has done this through a lack of an effective conservative ideology and through actions that translate into extravagant domestic spending, two bungled wars, a doubling of the national debt, a ruination of America's moral high ground in the war against terror, the worst use of the US intelligence services since the Bay of Pigs, the fostering of Iran as a nuclear power and a squandering of global energy reserves. All these things appear on national television in Irleand. They fan a distrust of the American president.
Most Irish are downright hostile to the Bush Administration. That fact worried some Americans who spoke to me during their short breaks in Ireland in the early summer. They were worried about the hostility spilling over onto them. I told them to avoid talking about politics, religion or their claims to Irish ancestry and they'd enjoy their pub chats more.
In the Irish survey, just over 70% of respondents said that Bush was doing a poor job as a world leader. Twenty percent said that he was doing an average job, while 5% felt he was doing a good job. The results suggest Irish citizens would find the Daily Kos a worthy reading.
Kevin Rafter -- "Bush has made the world more dangerous" on the front page of the Sunday Tribune, 17 Sep 06. And inside: "Forget the economy and the peace process--most Irish people are deeply uneasy about the USA"
Patrick Quinn -- "US War Prisons Legal Vacuum for 14,000"
