Polls: Majorities in Britain, Mexico think Bush more dangerous than leaders of Iran, North Korea

The Associated Press

Majorities of people polled in two of America's closest allies think U.S. President George W. Bush is a bigger threat to world peace than North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pollsters said Friday.

In Britain, Canada, Mexico and Israel, where the survey was commissioned by newspapers and conducted by separate polling firms, more people saw al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a danger than they did Bush. But in all those except Israel, Bush was ranked as a greater threat than the president of Iran — a country he labeled part of an "axis of evil" in 2002 — and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Seventy-five percent of Britons questioned said Bush was a great or moderate threat to peace, compared with 87 percent who said that about bin Laden, the poll found. Sixty-nine percent saw Kim — whose country tested an atomic bomb last month — as a great or moderate threat to peace and 62 percent perceived Ahmadinejad that way, the poll found. Sixty-five percent of Britons saw Nasrallah as a threat.

In Canada, bin Laden was seen by the largest percentage of people as a threat, followed in order by Kim, Bush, Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Mexicans ranked Bush as the second-most dangerous of the group, behind only bin Laden.

Twenty-three percent of Israelis saw Bush as a great or moderate threat. They saw Ahmadinejad — who called for their country to be wiped off the map — as the biggest threat, slightly ahead of bin Laden.

Majorities in Britain, Canada and Mexico — 69 percent, 62 percent and 57 percent respectively — said U.S. foreign policy has made the world more dangerous since 2001. In Israel, 36 percent said Bush's actions had made the world more dangerous, compared with 25 percent who said he had made it safer.

(There is more, here.)