More Loathed Than North Korea

Under George W. Bush, the United States has become more disliked in the world than Kim Jong Il’s evil dictatorship. That is, of course, an insane degree of anti-Americanism. But, however objectively nuts, it’s not good news for the West’s soft power. While Bush and Cheney have ground America’s hard power into the sands of Anbar, they have all but destroyed America’s soft power across the world. It’s quite a legacy they leave. The good news, I suspect, is that when they finally quit the scene, the U.S. will get an automatic global soft power upgrade – which could be exploited by the next president if he or she is canny enough.