Turkey is 'biggest winner' of Arab Spring

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WASHINGTON - Despite repeated expressions of support by President Barack Obama for democratic change during the "Arab Spring", the United States remains widely distrusted in the region, according to a major new survey of public opinion in five Arab countries released here on Monday.

Instead, Turkey is viewed as having played the "most constructive" role in the past year's events and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as the most admired leader by far in the region, according to the 2011 edition of the annual "Arab Public Opinion Survey" conducted by Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution.

The survey, which was conducted during the last half of October, was based on detailed interviews of some 3,000 respondents from urban centers in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It also included Saudi Arabia, the results from which, however, arrived too late to be weighted with the other five countries.

"Turkey is the biggest winner of the Arab Awakening," said Telhami, who noted that, despite increasing disillusionment with Obama's performance on Israel-Palestinian issues, the US president appears to have gained some ground in Arab public opinion since the summer of 2010 when the last survey was conducted.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MK23Ak01.html

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1. Just one more snip from the end:

And asked if there could be only one superpower in the world, which country they would prefer it to be, China topped the list at 23% - an increase of 9% from 2009 - followed by Germany (15%), Russia (12%), and France (10%), a substantial decline from more than 30% last year. The US was preferred by only 7%, tied with Pakistan.

[ProgressoDem]

3. However, if any of those countries became the superpower overnight...

... you would see America's numbers rise back up, and that country's go down... simply by virtue of people resenting the superpower. Plus, I cannot imagine China treating the world much better than even the worst of the GWB administration.

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4. Yeah, we could move up in the ratings, be tied with Russia, even France. nt

[MisterP]

2. "repeated expressions of support by President Barack Obama for democratic change"

if you're going to lie, lie big, I guess

[Raven Lunatic]

5. "the United States remains widely distrusted in the region"

Geez, I wonder why? :sarcasm: