The war elevated George II to new heights of power: will the war bring him down?

The Harris Interactive Institute carried out an opinion poll amongst American citizens. CNN and Time magazine asked about the future goals of the anti-terrorist coalition, international stability, and USA’s role in all of this.

This research was conducted over the phone durin March 13-14 and coincided with Dick Cheney’s visit to the Middle East. About 70% of the American people support a military attack against Iraq, and only 23% of Americans are against it. As far as the Middle East conflict is concerned, 65% of the respondents are pessimistic about the current situation and they doubt that it is possible to establish peace there. Forty-six percent of the respondents believe that Israel went too far in its retaliation against the Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians over the last several weeks. Forty-four percent said that the Palestinians are responsible for the escalation of violence in the region, and 19% said that Israel is guilty.

Fifty-four percent of Americans are sure that President Bush has taken tried to help find an end to the conflict in the Middle East, whereas 38% think that the president’s actions were not sufficient. On the whole, 75% of the Americans think positively of Bush's activity.

One may say that the ratings of the American president is comparable with the ratings of the Russian president. Both the American and Russian peoples confide in their presidents because they both make such bold statements. The main thing here is that such statements must be backed up with some real action. George Bush did well in this respect, in spite of the fact that some of his statements, such as the “axis of evil,” are then corrected by his aides. The war placed George Bush on a pedestal, and George Bush may be sitting pretty while the war continues and continues. Another such war, of a local character, played a very positive role for Vladimir Putin.

In general, both of the presidents have a lot in common, and these common features allow us to understand that the positive issues of our relations will prevail over the negative ones, if not now, but at least in the future. So far, there is nothing to boast of.

Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov