And in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called out the thugs to deal with student and other protests against his despotic and brutal regime. The regime's enforcers attacked students in Tehran with Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, chains, razors and clubs. Despite this, protesters continue to throng Iran's streets hoping to topple the theocrats who rule there.
Against this backdrop arrives news of a new poll by the British Broadcasting Corp.n testing attitudes toward the United States in 11 countries: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Korea and the United States itself.
Fifty-eight percent had a "fairly unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" view of George W. Bush. Sixty-seven percent said they would not like their country to emulate U.S. economic policies. Only 25 percent (with American responses excluded) thought the U.S. was making the world a safer place. Sixty-five percent characterized the United States as "arrogant." Fifty-six percent thought the United States was wrong to attack Iraq, and America was viewed as a greater threat to peace than Russia, China, Syria, Iran or North Korea.
What's the relation of the poll to the stories of repression around the world? It's this: Most of the world undervalues the United States. Perhaps that's the result of envy, or perfidy, or something else. But too often we join in the general condemnation.
We've certainly got our faults. But just a cursory glance at the state of freedom in the rest of the world on any given day should remind us of how lucky we are to be Americans.