Negative views of the US military presence in the Gulf are part of a broader negative view of US relations with the Muslim world.
Most worldwide think the United States is disrespectful of the Muslim world, though only a minority thinks this is done purposefully. Given three options, only 16 percent on average across 21 nations say “the US mostly shows respect to the Islamic world.” Sixty-seven percent think the US is disrespectful, but 36 percent say this is “out of ignorance and insensitivity,” while 31 percent say “the US purposely tries to humiliate the Islamic world.” Only Americans have a majority saying the US mostly shows respect to the Islamic world (56%).
Not surprising but I find it interesting that no Gulf nation is even on the survey. I’m sure the Iranians are not thrilled to have us there, but on the other side of the Gulf I think they would freak if we packed up and left — despite what they say for public consumption.
One of the reasons for a long-standing western military presence in the Arabian Gulf has been the territorial ambitions of the Gulf States’ neighbors throughout most of the last century. What many people don’t realise is there was a prior attempt on Kuwait 40 or 50 years before the recent invasion. Others would like to see the entire area become the Persian Gulf.
The most restive regime in the region, Saddam Hussein’s, has been deposed. If Arabs don’t want Persians ruling over them–and we say that like it’s a bad thing–then they better stop spending so much money on resorts and yachts and cocaine and pick up some decent militaries instead.
I think it is save to say that the goverments of Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, and Oman are thrilled to have us pick up much of the tab for their defense.
#4 AndrewA
Well it’s a difficult one. Many of those states have a large land-mass and a small population. In many cases the imported workforce outnumbers the local inhabitants. Just in terms of numbers they may not be able to mount viable military defense on their own. Many spend quite a bit on defense, but manpower is the problem. If they rely on recruiting outside their populations, they lay themselves open to the possibility of a military coup.
But certainly they should and may already contribute to the cost of defending them. We also need to remember how strategically important they are to our oil supplies.
Frankly, I’m not losing any sleep over what the rest of the world thinks about our presence in the Persian Gulf. The Gulf States are all friendly to the US and we wouldn’t be there if they didn’t want us. As for the rest of the world, who cares.
anyway, once Mr. Obama is annointed next month, Europe and the whole Islamic world will love us, so problem solved.
It’s very interesting how European countries don’t like our military being in the Persian Gulf, but they would scream like stuck pigs if their own oil supplies were to be threatened … and then, who would they call? Also, the oil producing countries in the region would be lost without our protection of their precious oil supplies getting out to their customers. It’s easy to poll different countries with certain questions and come up with the answers the pollsters may think are correct or not even realize your poll questions suggest answers. While polls may be interesting, they are nothing to base our foreign policy on, and especially nothing to base a foreign policy that protects our strategic allies (and I emphasize the word “strategic” there).
Poll are just exactly that……POLLS……and nothing else. They prove nothing. If the Gulf States wanted us out of that region, their governments would’ve given us the heave-ho. They haven’t, and they are not likely to for the forseeable future, since they don’t have the military strength to defend themselves. Their naval strength, for instance, is negligible. Want proof? Go to Haze Grey & Underway and take a look at the reality.
Interesting poll, and the article makes the excellent point that the USA is not really protecting its own supply of oil (we get only 10% of our consumption from the Gulf states) but our allies’. I didn’t see Japan or South Korea in the poll, but they are two of our allies that depend most heavily on Gulf oil.
Anybody still remember what happened the last time Japan decided it had to safeguard its own supply of oil? Okay, that was a bit of a stretch – it’s now a different time and a different Japan – but there is a legitimate question here: if the United States does not safeguard Gulf oil, then is the world willing to see East Asia’s economy suffer the consequences?
I wonder what the numbers from the Gulf states, or other Arab
states, would indicate if the question(s) took up the issue of whether or
not Israel should be allowed to exist. The point being that we can’t base our
foreign policy decisions upon polls taken in societies which are still
largely tribal and in thrall to their blinkered religious outlook.
Don’t you know!! Biased polls can be used to prove anything. I note there is a whole group of Middle Eastern people happy to have us there. They know if we left the terrorists of every nation there would taken over again and we certainly could expect the worst blood bath we have ever seen and many Christians would see Jesus sooner than they had planned.