YOU WOULDN’T KNOW IT from George Bush’s dismal approval rating, but 70 percent of Americans still “favor the U.S.-led efforts to fight terrorism.” At least that was the finding of a Pew Global Attitudes Survey conducted this spring and released late last month.

For those inclined to discount such polling, the results may be of scant interest. But for what it’s worth, this year’s survey offers discouraging news about European support for the war on terrorism; encouraging news about the lack of Latin American support for Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Muslim support for Osama bin Laden; predictable news about the rise of China; plus revealing news about the Sunni-Shia rift, and more.