Pat Dollard | Young Americans

I guess the reason they believe this because Al Qaeda has not been able to execute any large-scale terror attacks like 9-11 in the 7 years hence, that they have lost control of Somalia, failed to destabilize Algeria, have been crushed in Iraq with its few survivors crawling into Afghanistan, where they are now down to operating there and in Pakistan, caught in a pincer of NATO, and anti-Islamist forces in Pakistan.

US ‘War on Terror’ Has Not Weakened al Qaeda, Says Global Poll

PR Newswire - COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The US’s ‘war on terror’ has failed to weaken its prime target al Qaeda, according to people in 22 out of 23 countries surveyed in a new poll for the BBC World Service.

On average only 22 percent believe that al Qaeda has been weakened, while three in five believe that it has either had no effect (29%) or made al Qaeda stronger (30%).

And while negative views of al Qaeda are most common in nearly all of the countries surveyed, this is not the case in Egypt and Pakistan - both pivotal nations in the conflict with al Qaeda. In both of these countries far more have either mixed or positive feelings towards al Qaeda than have negative feelings.

Asked who is winning “the conflict between al Qaeda and the United States”, the predominant view of those polled is that neither the US nor al Qaeda is winning, with 15 countries holding this view. In three countries - Kenya, Nigeria and Turkey - the dominant view is that the US is winning.

On average across all 23 countries just 10 percent think al Qaeda is winning, 22 percent think the US is winning, and 47 percent think neither side is winning. Even in the United States only 34 percent believe al Qaeda has been weakened.

On average 61 percent of those in countries surveyed say their feelings about al Qaeda are negative, 8 percent say they are positive and 18 percent say they are mixed.

“Despite its overwhelming military power, America’s war against al Qaeda is widely seen as having achieved nothing better than a stalemate and many believe that it has even strengthened al Qaeda,” comments Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes.

GlobeScan Chairman Doug Miller added, “The fact that so many people in Egypt and Pakistan have mixed or even positive views of al Qaeda is yet another indicator that the US war on terror is not winning hearts and minds.”

The results are drawn from a survey of 23,937 adult citizens across 23 countries conducted for the BBC World Service by the international polling firm GlobeScan together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. GlobeScan coordinated fieldwork between July 8 and September 12, 2008.