The Iranian View of Amerca

"The WPO and TFT polls found sharp contrasts in how Iranians view the United States, its government and people. The American people are predominantly viewed positively (about 50% positive vs. 30% negative, averaging the WPO and TFT surveys), while the U.S. government and President Bush are viewed very negatively (less than 10% positive compared to about 80% negative on the WPO survey). Iranian opinion of the "United States" is a composite of these and other impressions about American society and falls between these two extremes. About 30 percent of Iranians have a favorable opinion of the United States, compared to 60 percent unfavorable (average of the two surveys)."

This quote is taken from this article  posted on WorldPublicOpinion.org http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brmiddleeastnafricara/527.php?nid=&id=&pnt=527

Ever since the 1979 Iranian Revolution in which 52 American diplomats were held hostage for over a year, the relationship between Iran and America; priorly a positive one, has remained hostile with a negative opinion being shown for America's foreign policy. This article from WorldPublicOpinion.org, suggests that now the Iranian goverment are starting to 'desire a "common ground" to be found between the two societies'.

It appears that although they may genuinely want to resolve any past issues with America, that there are other reasons for this desire to become allies again. As stated in the article, Iran have a rather inflated perception of how much power in the world the USA has.They are correct in thinking that America has a fairly large influence on the world, whether positive or negative, and in regards to their own distaste for their economy they would like to perhaps be more like America.

However, although this article is very observant of the current events in Iran, involving aspects other than their view on America, the opinions of the Iranian government cannot be be generalized to every citizen of Iran as I'm sure many still have distaste for America. Despite this, it is still an interesting insight in to Iran and how America is so influential to the world that they are willing to get past conflicts.