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As we find ourselves on the eve of the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, we remember the sentiments of solidarity as the entire world felt deep attachment and sympathy for the 3,000 plus victims of the atrocious attacks. How has the reputation of America changed across the globe since the unprecedented terrorist attacks on 9/11? A brief Google search limited to the past year shows that there is little to no content on this topic. Instead, it is all focused on how America and Americans have changed. It reflects the very myopic disease that some believe has afflicted America since 9/11.
As is typical of any significant issue, there are at least two sides that take up stances for a pissing contest in American politics. The Liberals with their anti-Christian agenda and the Conservatives with their Christian-only agenda, battle it out with aversion for the real heart of their disagreement. In this case, the Liberals want to make it appear that Islam is under unfair attack by Conservative Christians, while Conservatives want to paint the world as pandering to compromised minds of Liberals, based on blind propaganda. Ironically, they both call up the same defenses, such as Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, National Security, etc... Since these are mere tools, they can be used to buttress either side of the social conflict inherent in modern American society. I say “social conflict” rather than political, because it is really a shaping of politics to back a personal social agenda in both cases.
Now that we understand the situation of the news we might read from within America, let us examine what people abroad think about America since 9/11. We will focus especially on the reputation of America in Poland, but the situation is not so different across most of the European Union.
Radical Islamic groups have created the incident and given the motivation and justification for the U.S. to wield its power abroad in fresh ways. The wars themselves in Afghanistan and Iraq were backed by expressions of support for the U.S. cause from other countries, many of which have waned. The missile bases in Poland have threatened to ignite the old conflict between U.S. and Russia once again, which Germany has taken advantage of through pipeline agreements to circumvent Poland. And Poland is often cited as the closest ally the U.S. has in Europe. Whether it is true or not, it is perception.
These missiles have definitely polarized Poles, so that the majority who were ambivalent toward the U.S., are now opposed to the presence of American muscle in Poland, regardless of the logic. They believe it may antagonize Russia and they envision Russia invading Poland to neutralize the threat, but using it as a precedence to once again occupy Poland.
Poles are especially touchy about the subject of the threats of foreign invasions, since the country has been partitioned by super powers before and vanished from the map of Europe for hundreds of years. So this history, the geographic location, and the American flirtations with irritating Russia have all gone into turning many otherwise neutral Poles into anti-American Poles.
The situation with Poland may in fact play out in parallel ways with other countries, such as South Korea. So the end result is likely that the U.S. choices to improve its self-defensive stance has only turned those who were not against her, into American haters.
An interesting aspect in the evolution of European or even Global attitudes towards U.S. Foreign Policy since 9/11, has much to do with the 2008 Presidential Elections. The animosity and anti-American attitudes reached their height in 2005 as the U.S. found itself deeply entrenched in Iraq and Afghanistan. The sunni-shite divides and fediyeen insurgency took a massive tool on U.S. troops – which the rest of the world unfairly saw as a consequence of disingenuous American military involvement in the Middle-East. Popular perspectives in the Muslim world stemmed from the Bush Administration’s use of WMDs as an excuse to topple Saddam, to Haliburton’s need to secure the oil fields. Regardless, all this took the immediately vanished into thin air with Obama coming into office.
The world at large celebrated jubilantly as America elected its first Black President after centuries of oppression of African-Americans. Additionally, the Muslim world took a breath of fresh- air as it interpreted this as a major doctrine shift in U.S. Foreign Policy – especially after Obama’s first international trips to Egypt and Turkey. However much he underplayed his middle-name, the deeply critical Muslim world continued to be fixated with “Hussain” and saw it as a triumph of their own. The sentiments therefore towards the U.S. since 2008 have relatively improved since the Bush years.
Europe and the Muslim world were again impressed with the way Obama conducted the policy of non-involvement during the Arab Spring. By continuing to keep a spectator view and making sure that only essential efforts were taken to halt any state-sponsored human rights violations; Obama and the U.S have gained much respect in the eyes of the world.
As we find ourselves on the eve of the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, we remember the sentiments of solidarity as the entire world felt deep attachment and sympathy for the 3,000 plus victims of the atrocious attacks. And though we were quickly able to lose this unprecedented pro-American fervor as Bush ignored the international recommendation of not invading Iraq; we made much progress under Obama to reconcile with our allies. But there is still much more work to be done, and regardless of the outcome of the upcoming 2012 Elections, candidates for the Presidency must take lessons from political, economic, and diplomatic history that there are still many wounds that need to be healed. 
Brendan Horowitz is an investigative journalist who has previously covered the War in Iraq and Afghanistan for various leading publications in the United States and United Kingdom. He writes mostly on security studies and international law.
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