Katrina and American power

I haven't said anything about Katrina since I don't have anything original to say and it's outside the blog's areas of concern.  But I thought I would pass along a couple of impressionistic indicators of how Katrina is affecting Arab views of the United States - specifically, of American power.  First, two cartoons:

The top half (Super-Bush) is labeled "Great Power";  the skinny legs are labeled "Third World."


Kind of speaks for itself.

And now, an online poll currently running on al-Jazeera asks this question:  "Have your views of the capabilities of the United States changed after the Katrina hurricane?"  With almost 30,000 responses already, 68% say yes and 32% no.

Two cartoons and an unscientific on-line survey hardly count as "evidence", but it's still kind of interesting that the undermining of perceptions of American power is such a prominent theme. 

Comments

[Jawad]

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Bouzid0909.htm
The End of “Greatness”, says Ahmed Bouzid of Palestine Media Watch (www.pmwatch.com)

[Jane]

America will never be looked at in the same way again, not be foreigners and certainly not by her own citizens. We have seen the US government fail the weakest and poorest among us. To America I say yet again, WAKE UP! Our government is not looking out for us, it is not taking care of us, and it will not be there for us during our time of need. This time it happened to "them." Next time it could be "us." The actions of my government have embarassed me many time, but I've never been as ashamed as I am now, seeing how our people were left to suffer and die like animals while red tape, incompetence, and positive spin was all around.