What????

Far be it for me to disagree with a prominent national pollster like John Zogby, but his op-ed in the New York Daily News has got me scratching my head.

Emphasis added.

In the five years since the 9/11 attacks, Americans have been told that terrorists and their sympathizers in the Arab and Muslim world are enemies of freedom whose intense hatred of America must be answered with force.

My extensive polling shows something quite different: The vast majority of the Muslim world was fond of us prior to the war in Iraq.

Excuse me, but...what? Don't I recall news clips of Muslim crowds cheering the 9/11 attacks?

Within a few months of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, my firm undertook a poll of 5,345 Muslims in five Arab countries (Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) and three non-Arab countries (Pakistan, Iran and Indonesia).

The results, for the most part, were heartening: 81% held a favorable view of American science and technology; 64% had a favorable impression of American movies and television, and 68% had a favorable view of American-made products.

Adults under 30 years of age - a huge element of each country's total population - were particularly favorable toward the United States, an encouraging sign.

Huh. What were the numbers like a year before 9/11? Were they that high then, too? Is this poll indicative of prior opinion in the Muslim world, or are they simply part of the post-9/11 sympathy bounce we got from all over the world?

Dunno. Zogby doesn't tell us.

He does make a point of telling us that, because of the Iraq war, Muslims no longer like us as much.

By May 2004, American prestige had plummeted.

...

Our polling in the region in late 2005 produced similar results.

What had changed minds? Three words: war in Iraq.

Does anybody remember any large amounts of goodwill emanating from the Middle East toward the US...ever? I don't. Middle Eastern countries have never liked us. Even when they're our kinda-sorta allies, their leaders badmouth us. Their people demonstrate against us. Well before 9/11, this was the case. Well before the war.

So what the heck is Zogby talking about?