2.1     Opinions of the United States

2.1.1     Affirmative opinions to attacking ‘the Axis of evil’

It seems to me that most of the articles of American newspaper are affirmative to attacking the Axis of Evil, especially, Iraq. A poll found　'59% support sending US ground troops to Iraq to oust Saddam, up from 54% three weeks ago. That's the highest level of public support for a possible U.S. invasion since June, when 61% backed sending ground troops, but still less than the 74% who favoured an invasion in a poll last November. If Saddam does not comply with the UN resolution, 40% say the United States should take military action only with UN authorization, while 31% say it should go ahead regardless of whether UN permission is granted. One in four, 24%, says the United States should not go to war at all (Nichols 2002)’. According to the result of this poll, it is obvious that most of the American people accept it, and the percentage of the opponent is far smaller than other countries. In this connection, according to Reuters’ survey, one third of the English people think that President Bush is more dangerous than President Hussein, and 85% of them estimate Mr. Bush to be less than 2 points out of 10.

2.1.2     Unfavorable opinions to it

It is true that most of the American opinions are affirmative to the belligerent attitude toward Iraq, but some others are not, as obvious from the poll by Nicholas referred in 2.1.1. Mark Lance, the associate professor of justice and peace and an associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, claims in USA TODAY that ‘By eliminating Saddam, we would create more enemies and terror (Lance 2002)’. This point of view has some in common with the opinions of the other countries, which will be mentioned in 2.2.

2.2     Opinions of other countries

It is important to refer to the opinions of other countries, because some of them are completely different from American’s. We can divide the opinions of other countries in the following way: the stands on the attacks. In this way, we can classify them into 2 groups.

The first opinion, typified by the UK government, is that they should cooperate with American in attacking ‘axis of evil’, claiming that they have the right of self-defence. The UK’s foreign Secretary Jack Straw answered the interview on 18 October on BBC, ‘The right to act in self defence is a right specified by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter as well as in customary international law. The crucial point here is that in extremis every country has that right. But what is the preferred route for the United States, as it is for the United Kingdom, is to ensure that the authority of the United Nations is secured and upheld (BRITISH EMBASSY 2002)’. That is, the UK government suggest that it is possible that they strike on Iraq cooperated with the USA without the approval of the UNSC, though it is better to act with UNSC. This point of view is similar to the American’s, but they are more composed and deliberate.

The second opinion is the most general, and maybe, the most practical one, that the assault against Iraq will be permitted if the UNSC agrees. In fact, most of the public, including British people, adopt this idea. This idea is similar to the one mentioned in 2.1.2. It says that the international harmony should be respected, and therefore we should follow the determination of the UN, the greatest organization in the world. This idea opposes to the US-led attack without the approval of the UN.

2.3     Comparison

Though all of these countries are fearful of the Iraqi affairs, there seem to be a great deference between the States and other countries. The Americans tend to make light of the UN, while the other countries otherwise. Therefore, other countries are now feeling somewhat puzzled when thinking about the States.