Uncharacteristically, The Economist offers a very bland review of a recent American poll of foreign approval of the country and its ways (”The World Out There,” June 7, 2003). The poll covered sixteen-thousand people in twenty countries. It was conducted after the Iraq war. Predictably, the Muslim world takes a dim view of America. The countries that appreciate it are predictable enough, as well: Israel, Britain, Canada, Australia. But the dismal poll results from Germany, France, Spain, and Russia are glossed over as though they will go away soon. They will not. The war in Iraq has rent America and Europe for a long time to come. In the long run, this will turn out to be the main effect of the war, whereas the opinion in the Muslim world is of much less consequence for the world affairs. One cannot but wonder at the blandness of The Economist’s report. Is the mighty newspaper really blind when it comes to American blunders? Or are these blunders its own?