If that sounds like a daunting task, it is. Some have already said that the mission is doomed for failure. 

But after listening to a few minutes of Ghani’s plans and vision, it’s hard not to believe that the war-ravaged country will one day rise from the rubble and become a key leader in the region. 

Cautioning that the process will take time, Ghani says that Afghanistan will still need the assistance of the United States.

“American diplomacy is going to be indispensable,” he said during a recent interview in his home in Kabul.  “The type of diplomatic imagination that created stability in Europe after World War II and then in East Asia … is going to be required. Because our problems are not national, they’re regional and global.”

Preparing for US withdrawal 
Ghani, 63, left Afghanistan in 1977 to pursue a master’s degree at New York’s Columbia University. Due to the uncertainty in Afghanistan starting with the war with the Soviet Union in the 1980s and then during the Taliban’s regime, he ended up staying in the U.S. for 24 years, even becoming an American citizen. But after the fall of the Taliban, he returned to Afghanistan in December 2001 to become the chief adviser to President Hamid Karzai.

 “[America] is a place where I was educated and taught.  So it brings memories and networks of friendship,” he said. “Some of my best years were in the United States.”  

Ghani gave up his American citizenship in 2009 to run in Afghanistan’s presidential elections. Although he says he has had the opportunity to reclaim his U.S. citizenship, he says he has declined. “America is not my home; Afghanistan is,” he said. 

As the U.S. prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan, Ghani believes that if Washington fails to continue supporting Afghanistan, it will have tragic global consequences.

He says he has a great deal of respect and gratitude for American generosity and sacrifice when it comes to Afghanistan, but believes many mistakes were made and potential lost because of the lack of U.S. understanding of Afghan needs.  He also believes that Afghanistan was neglected after the invasion of Iraq, which he calls a conscious decision that took “so much of the oxygen and resources away from the Afghan war.”

Contractors and the private sector have been another major problem, according to Ghani.  He blames some of America’s mistakes on the outsourcing of government functions to contractors without proper government oversight and supervision, leading to the loss and misuse of billions of dollars in funding and U.S. taxpayer money.

“Afghanistan of the next two years cannot be treated from the perspective of the Beltway in Washington where private contractors, both civil and military, predominate,” he says. 

Afghans are ‘no different from any American’
In addition, he believes there is a disconnect when it comes to the American people’s perception of Afghanistan.   

“We are not succeeding in making our case to the American public,” he said. “The majority of Afghans are decent, hard-working and in terms of what they want in life, they’re no different from any American. They want education for their children.  They want the ability [to access] … necessities. And they would like to live without violence hanging over them.”

Ghani said that Afghans embraced America “whole-heartedly” in 2001 because they believed the United States would help end violence, poverty and the abuse of power in the bruised nation. 

“If dislike has grown [among Afghans] it is because they have seen lack of movement towards the goals that they thought were shared values,” he said

But he believes that most Afghans still know that they need the help of the United States.

“Ordinary people of this country see the partnership with the United States as absolutely indispensable to our future security and in stability,” he said.

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans '

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egyptians to US: Stay out

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

The father of four is of Pakistani descent and is the U.K.’s best-known former Guantanamo Bay prisoner. (The U.S. Department of Defense held a total of nine detainees of British descent at Guantanamo Bay at one time; all have been released from detention).  

After he was freed from the U.S. base in Cuba in 2005, Begg wrote a book about his experiences, “Enemy Combatant: The Terrifying True Story of a Briton in Guantanamo.” The book details how he says he was treated by the Americans in one of the most notorious prisons in the world and how his love for his family kept him sane.

“I didn’t think I was going to get through it, I didn’t think there was any light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, “but one becomes accustomed to the fear… and you resign yourself to your fate.”

Three years in custody
His fate turned out to be three years in high-security detention, first in Kandahar and Bagram in Afghanistan and then at Guantanamo. The claims made against him were many: being an al-Qaida member, recruiting others to terrorism, providing support and financing, training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan and training others.

Despite this, he was never charged. After his release, Begg accused the British government of complicity while he was in American custody, and received an out-of-court settlement in 2010.

Now living in Birmingham, in central England, he emphatically denies allegations of links to terrorism.   

“I never fought with al-Qaida or the Taliban or have been a member of either,” he says, “and I think the Americans clearly know this after being held by them and being interrogated over a hundred times.”

Yet he still cuts a controversial figure. Around the U.K., opinion is divided on whether he was a man jailed for crimes he did not commit or if he does have the ties to terror groups the U.S. alleged before being released without charge in 2005.

Alleged torture
Some consensus, though, has emerged – that he was a victim of human rights violations in the form of being illegally detained and tortured, allegations denied by the U.S. government.

When I ask about the alleged torture, it’s the only time during our interview that he loses his cool.

 “I was punched and kicked,” he said. “Soldiers cut my clothes off, they shaved my hair and beard forcibly, they took pictures of me naked, dogs frightened me, they interrogated me naked; that was torture.”

He also says he saw two men beaten to death and heard the sounds of a woman screaming next door that he was led to believe was his wife.

He says some of his worst moments, though, came from much less dramatic circumstances. He spent most of his time in solitary confinement, he says, in a small cell with no natural light with no meaningful contact from his family and nothing to read. He says that with no end in sight he got very depressed and looked forward only to sleep.

‘A lot of decent Americans’
During this time, I ask him, did he start to hate the people who were responsible for his incarceration?

No, he says immediately, because help came from an unexpected quarter: His guards became his saving grace. They would talk to him, give him food and snacks when he was hungry, and provided valued snippets of information about his family, his legal case and news from around the world.

“There are a lot of decent Americans who did things for me which I will remember for the rest of my life,” he says. “And we are still friends to this day.”

In fact, he says, some of the guards have since visited him at his home in England, adding that they’ve apologized for his treatment and that he has forgiven any role they played in his detention.

He says the resentment he does harbor is focused on the U.S. administration and its actions in the world.

‘No friend of American foreign policy’
 “I am no friend of American foreign policy and I think it needs to be resisted in every way legal,” he said, citing drone attacks in Pakistan, the Abu Ghraib atrocities and U.S. policy in Somalia as examples. “The U.S. has developed a position in the world that is very difficult to draw back from.”

Today, Begg is not allowed to enter the USA and displays some rare but measured anger when he speaks about it.   

“I have never been to America but it has been to me,” he said. “It has shown me a face of itself that I didn’t know existed, and that face included extraordinary rendition, false imprisonment, kidnap, torture and the abuses of basic human rights.”

He also argued that President Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo has been a big mistake, calling it “a recruiting sergeant for radicalism.”

Begg told me he still suffers flashbacks and nightmares from his time in detention. But he said he focuses his energies as director of CagePrisoners, an organization fighting for the rights of prisoners held around the world in the name of the “war on terror.”  

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans '

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

The military installation has been part of Gritzbach's lifeblood for more than 60 years.

But when the leaves begin to fall in the autumn of 2013, the U.S. Army is scheduled to shut down its Campbell Barracks in Gritzbach's home city.

For the 86-year-old German, an era will come to an end with the U.S. troop pullout.

"I owe a lot to the Americans. They paved the way for what I am today," the widower said in a soft, choked voice.

From refugee to part of a community
With all of his belongings in no more than a cardboard box, Gritzbach arrived in Heidelberg in 1947, shortly after the end of World War II. He was a “displaced person” or refugee. His family was expelled from what used to be Czechoslovakia because they belonged to a minority group of ethnic Germans.

When he arrived in post-war Germany, the young man had no work training and no profession, but he was given a job with the U.S. forces in Heidelberg.

Over the course of his 39-year career as a civilian employee with the U.S. Army in Europe, he worked as a quartermaster, in the finance department and the engineering division.

After he retired, Gritzbach stayed on with the military community and took up volunteer work with his wife, Hilde, who passed away five years ago.  

Weather and health permitting, the German visits his "American friends" three to four times a week to water the plants, do some weeding and simply engage in some small talk.

But now, his rose bushes, as well as the flowers and shrubs from the little garden he’s tended all these years, are being given new homes in local backyards before the military installation shuts down completely.

Troop reduction
Since the end of the 1980s, the U.S. Army in Europe has divested more than 570 military installations, including military barracks, housing areas and isolated radar positions.

By 2015, more major garrisons are expected to be returned in Germany – Heidelberg, Mannheim, Bamberg and Schweinfurt – which the Army says will save $300 million per year.

Carlo Angerer / NBC News

Daniel Welch, has been working for the U.S. military as a "local national employee" in Heidelberg, Germany since 1980 and expects to lose his job next year.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon announced defense cuts of $487 billion over the next decade, as the United States seeks to move to a smaller, leaner and more agile force, putting a new strategic focus on the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

The Defense Department in January said that it would remove two of the four U.S. combat brigades stationed in Europe as part of its military restructuring. 

Long gone are the demands of the Cold War, when the Soviet bloc and the United States faced off across the walls, fences and barbed wire of the Iron Curtain.

"Now we are trying to become more effective and more efficient in terms of cost savings, by consolidating and by combining garrisons," the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, Lt.Gen. Mark Phillip Hertling, told NBC News.

Impact on German economy
Yet, for many local hires the drawdown will have severe consequences.

55-year-old Daniel Welch, who has been working for the military as a “local national employee” since 1980 and runs the Army’s environmental division in the greater Heidelberg area, expects to lose his job next year.

"I still have a mortgage to pay off and my daughter is planning to go to college in the U.S., I will need to find a new job somewhere," Welch said.

Back in 1954, his American father met his German mother in Heilbronn during his first deployment to Germany.

"Of course it is emotional," said Welch. "Part of you is closing. The school I attended, the housing area where I grew up, even the church where my parents got married, all closed, all gone."

City officials in Heidelberg expect annual financial losses of up to $25 million, as a result of the closures of U.S. bases in the region.

"We estimate that a total of about 1,000 civilian jobs will be lost, when the nearly 8,000 service members pull out," said Diana Scharl, a spokesperson for the city of Heidelberg.

At the auto dealership across the street from the military installation, the future looks grim too. Fred Ambrosio, 62, expects to close his Liberty Car sales in Heidelberg by September 2013. Like many local businesses, he tailored his car dealership to U.S. customer needs – and with regular troop rotation intervals over the past decades, his business was doing well.

But now, the immediate future does not look rosy.

"The closures in and around Heidelberg have been a real hardship on my income. I have lost about 60 percent of my turnover, and every month it is getting worse," Ambrosio said.

Fred has come up with a backup plan and will move his business and six employees to Grafenwoehr, where the U.S. Army still maintains its largest training facility in Europe.

Emotional farewell
But while many locals have been able to prepare for the changes and some have already found new jobs, it is still a difficult farewell for most.

"The military installation in Heidelberg was like a second home to me and my wife," said Gritzbach, the retiree. He started to cry as he talked about the memories of the “good old days.” He cut three roses to put on his wife's grave and waved good-bye as he walked off.

"It is so sad. I have gone through many bitter phases in my life, but this will be one of the most emotional and most difficult farewells of all," Gritzbach said.

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

The quote from Obama was shortly after Egyptians had revolted and toppled long-time dictator and American ally Hosni Mubarak. The ad reflects a sense of pride Egyptians have about how they inspired the world, including the U.S. president. It also shows how a genuine acknowledgment from the U.S. goes a long way in Egypt.

But when it comes to their attitudes about America’s involvement in their country’s affairs, few Egyptians view the U.S. favorably, and or more importantly, with any trust.

U.S. seen as a meddler
Egypt's relationship with America goes back decades. But Egypt was cemented as a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East after its Camp David Peace Treaty with Israel. Following that, the U.S. bankrolled the Mubarak regime and the military that sustained the regime for 30 years.

That’s not lost on ordinary Egyptians. They may not know the intricacies of U.S. policy in Egypt, but intuitively they know that the U.S. backed and legitimized the man who oppressed them for three decades.

NBC News

Alaa El Din Mohamed, a taxi cab driver in Cairo, shares his views about the U.S..

So it should come as no surprise that most Egyptians view U.S. involvement in Egypt negatively.

A recent Gallup poll found 81 percent of Egyptians oppose American aid to political groups. And 84 percent of Egyptians surveyed doubt the U.S. is serious about spreading democracy in the region. The overwhelming majority of Egyptians reject both U.S. aid to civil society organizations and economic assistance to the country as a whole. They see U.S. aid as instruments used to manipulate Egypt’s domestic and foreign policies.

Alaa El Din Mohamed, a 34-year-old taxi driver, summed up his current views on the U.S.

“We are looking out for our country’s interests. For Egypt's interests we want stability, we want to work, we want to advance forward. We don't have any problems with the U.S., but we're just interested in our own country,” he said. “We want to be able to stand on our own two feet.  We want to look forward and then afterwards we can think about the U.S.”

And yet, despite the negative attitude, the U.S. as a country and Americans as a people remain symbols of democracy, freedom and modernity in the eyes of many ordinary Egyptians.

“The U.S. is a developed, advanced country and organized. Everything there is civilized that's what comes to my mind in regards to the U.S.,” Hala Abdel Rahman, a 50-year-old housewife, said when asked about her impressions of the country. “We would hope and wish that Egypt can become a developed country like the U.S.”

Many Egyptians are still drawn to the idea of the U.S. as the “land of opportunity” with thousands going there yearly to pursue educational opportunities and seek a better life.

Living in America still resonates loudly with Egyptians who believe most Americans enjoy a decent quality of life. In fact, many here draw a distinction between Americans and American foreign policy.

NBC News

Mona Bayoumi had high hopes for U.S. President Barack Obama and how he could improve things in the Middle East, but she said she's been disappointed.

“America as a people and stuff are really good people, they have values and are good people,” said Mohamed, the cab driver. “But the most important thing is they don’t interfere in our country.”

Feeling let down by Obama
During the Egyptian revolution, I remember seeing a poster in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that read, “Yes We Can, Too,” playing off of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign slogan that change is possible.

Today, many people in Egypt feel let down by Obama who they believe was slow to respond to the Egyptian people’s own calls for change during the revolution. Others believe Obama hasn’t followed through on his promise to change how the U.S. deals with the Middle East – from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Iran.

Mona Bayoumi, a 25-year-old administrator a Cairo arts college, believes there is a gap between what the U.S. promises and what it does.

“At the beginning when President Obama first came, we had a lot of hope that things would improve and be fixed – especially with Iraq and Iran,” said Bayoumi. “But we waited for something to happen and we didn't see anything...To be honest nothing that we expected to happen happened and nothing that we wanted happened.”

In a country of 85 million people, gauging the public’s attitudes is always a challenge.

But the underlying principle in how Egyptians view the U.S. is simple. After decades of being on the receiving end of U.S. foreign policy that arguably didn’t improve the quality of their lives, nor advance their own interests, Egyptians want to chart their own future with as little help from Washington as possible.

Whether the U.S. lets them is a whole different question.

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

But the once-friendly relations between the two nations came to a screeching halt in 1979 when cleric-led radicals ousted the U.S.-backed shah and the subsequent Iran hostage crisis when 52 Americans were held in the U.S. embassy for 444 days. 

These days, Iranians’ relations with America are somewhat schizophrenic – the government is stridently anti-American, but many Iranians are not. 

That is the opposite of other countries in the region where governments receive large amounts of money and military hardware from the U.S., but whose people generally dislike America.

Tehran’s dentist to the stars
A popular dentist in an affluent part of Tehran represents the love-hate relationship many Iranians feel toward the U.S.

In his Park Avenue-style dental practice, the latest Newsweek, Time and Architectural Digest magazines are on offer in the waiting room. A large flat-screen TV sits on the wall, along with an expansive fish tank and a framed dentistry degree from New York University. 

Iranians are consumers who love brand names – even when it comes to their dental care. When a friend of mine introduced me to the dentist, he told me he is the guy to go to if I wanted to brag about where I get my teeth cleaned. He is, in essence, Tehran’s equivalent of a Beverly Hills “dentist to the stars.”

A large part of his reputation comes not just from the fact that he has all the latest, modern dentistry equipment, but that he was trained in the U.S. and offers Western-style service. He was educated in dentistry at NYU and lived, worked and studied from the East Coast to West Coast.

Reuters

Coffee mugs bearing pictures of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs are on sale as a man works on a MacBook at a shop in northern Tehran on Jan.19, 2012. Despite the fact that Apple observes a U.S. embargo that restricts the sale of their goods in Iran, their products are wildly popular there.

Sporting fashionable glasses, a crisp blue button-down shirt and tie, the dentist, who is in his mid-40s, agreed to speak with me on the condition of anonymity.  

“I am who I am because of my education in the States,” said the dentist. “I am very American, but my view on U.S. politics is very different.”

I asked him what he thought about the tough economic sanctions being imposed on Iran – which block access to the international banking system and hurt sales of Iranian crude oil – as a way to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

Iranians feel the pain of sanctions: 'Everything has doubled in price'

“Why are there sanctions against Iran?” he said. “Wasn’t it America that helped Iran fire up its nuclear program 35 years ago? The sanctions just hurt ordinary people.” 

At the same time, he praised Iranians’ resilience.

“After 30 years of sanctions, embargoes, war and threats of war, Iran has kept its head above water,” he said. “Most other countries would have collapsed, but Iranians have found ways to circumvent these problems; they help each other.”

The dentist believes that one reason for  misunderstanding between America and Iran is that Americans have little real information on Iran – that they know only what they see on TV, which is often a very small part of the bigger picture.

For years, he says, he tried to convince American colleagues to give lectures on dentistry in Iran, but that they were reluctant to do so because of their perceptions. When one of them finally agreed to come, and experienced the famous Iranian hospitality and warmth, his perception of Iran changed very quickly.

Asked why he came back to Iran about eight years ago after spending most of his life in the States, he said he just felt like something was missing, adding that he loves Tehran because it’s like New York City – a noisy, fast-paced 24/7 place.

Steve Jobs photos on the wall
The desire for brand names in Iran that signify Western quality goes beyond dentistry. 

Mohsen, who agreed to speak with me on condition that only his first name be used, owns an electrical goods store in Tehran selling mostly black market Apple products. (Typically, Apple, as well as other imported goods that would be subject to U.S. embargoes, come into Iran via Dubai and the Persian Gulf. They are sold openly in stores in Tehran). 

He said that most Iranians love American products and culture and that personally he longs for the day that the two countries have normal relations.

Then a frown appeared on his face. “But,” he said, “they do things that even rub a moderate person, like me, the wrong way.”

“I read an article yesterday about an Iranian-American who went into an Apple store in the States and wanted to buy an iPad to send to her uncle in Tehran. When the sales person found out she was Iranian and wanted to send the iPad to Iran, the store refused to sell it to her,” he said.

“This is crazy! I sell 50 iPads and iPhones here a week. I have a picture of Steve Jobs on the wall! These sorts of things don’t do any good for relations between Iranian and American people.” 

The story Mohsen related was widely reported in the U.S. An Apple employee in Atlanta declined to sell an iPad to an Iranian-American customer, citing company policy that aims to comply with U.S. trade sanctions with Iran that can lead to individual fines of up to $250,000.  

Iran trade sanctions get personal in Apple stores  

In the meantime, Mohsen’s Apple products will have to remain on the black market. 

Still, not all Iranians have such a moderate view towards the U.S. Hussein, a hard-line student at Tehran University, has a very negative view of the States. (He also spoke on condition that only his first name be used.)

“All America has done is try to bully Iran, chip away at its nuclear rights and steal our oil,” Hussein said.

“I don’t think we should be talking to the Americans because ultimately they want our demise,” he said. “Throughout history, they have interfered in our country, only harming us. We have nothing in common.”

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

Abusrour is part of the first generation of children born to refugee parents in the Aida Refugee Camp, which was established in 1950 between the towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jala. It is now home to around 5,000 inhabitants all descendants from the 1948 expulsion from Palestine.

Abusrour considers himself “fortunate” to have gotten a scholarship to study in France, where he stayed for nine years and got his master’s and Ph.D in biological and medical engineering. But his heart was always also with theater, painting and photography. He came home with the dream of working with children to help shape the future of a Palestinian state.

The center started working with children in refugee camps in the area of Bethlehem and Bet-Jala, but then spread all over the West Bank with mobile “beautiful resistance” programs in theater, dance and music training.

He explained the center’s philosophy: “Resistance, because we are under occupation still until today and we have this right to resist the occupation; and beautiful, to reflect all this beauty, this humanity, this culture, this heritage, this beautiful heritage of unarmed struggle that the Palestinians have carried over the years even before Gandhi and Martin Luther King.”

U.S. is ‘supportive of an apartheid system that is suffocating us’
The center takes some of the children to tour and perform internationally.

“We go internationally to give the children the possibility to see real, free and peaceful countries without checkpoints, without tear gas, without occupation soldiers,” said Abusrour.

Children have toured in the United States, among many other countries. 

Abusrour says he was very eager to tour with the children in the U.S. because it is the richest, most powerful democracy in the world. But he also wanted to show them that even in the biggest democracy, injustice can be found. 

“We took our children to poor areas like Afro-American neighborhoods because it was important for me to show them as Palestinians that there are equal injustices in other places of the world,” he said.

While he appreciates the power of the U.S., Abusrour believes that as a country, it is not living up to its ideals.  

“The United States of America is a country like any other country. It has its beauty and faults," said Abusrour. He added that it is "the land of free and the brave, apparently, and they are violating the values that they pretend defending.”

For many Palestinians, it is hard to ignore the long-term support the U.S. has given and continues to give Israel for its security.  Many find it hard to understand how a country like the U.S., which plays a leading role in shaping the policies of other countries, can help Israel’s continuous violation of the Palestinian’s rights.

“As a Palestinian I see that [the U.S.] is supportive of an apartheid system that is suffocating us, that is continuing a violation of human rights and human values that we share as Palestinians,” said Abusrour. “I see the governments of the United States of America, one after the other, supporting this illegal occupation.” 

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

Aviva and Seth Goldstein left their families and a fantastic life in the Bronx for what is perceived by many as a country torn by war and conflict.

One year after their move you couldn't find a happier and more enthusiastic family in Jerusalem. Aviva's huge and warm smile doesn’t vanish from her face as she juggles a move to a new apartment and raising three girls: Aliana, 7, Tahila, 5, and Liba, 3.

For Aviva and Seth coming to Israel wasn’t about finding a greener pasture somewhere else  –  but as Jews they felt like not coming to the Holy Land was like standing on the sidelines of history. It was always a place that just called to them, where they dreamed of living.

As the Goldstein family lay down a nice picnic spread near the old Jerusalem railway tracks, an area dubbed as the Israeli version of New York City's High Line, I asked Aviva and Seth what America represents for them and what role America has in the world today.

"The first thing that would come to mind when you think of America is liberty and freedom," Seth said. "I don’t think the U.S. has retreated from that identity and I don't think it lost a piece of that identity. I think it stands for freedom and democracy [now] as much as ever.”

NBC News

Aviva and Seth Goldstein with their three daughters in Jerusalem.

"For me," Aviva said, "America is also freedom and liberty. But I think that there is a big piece of America that’s comfort, with liberty and security, and that there is mobility within that.”

'Economic opportunity'
Both Aviva and Seth have had careers in education, but at this point Aviva described herself as a "full time mom," while Seth works at the Shalem Center, a research institute in Jerusalem.  

"I think America stands for economic opportunity as well,” Seth said. "Also for all sorts of religious opportunities, that go hand-in- hand with freedom. It really is a place that you can grow in all sorts of uninhibited ways and be successful in all sorts of remarkable ways.”

How did they think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan changed America?

"I think it stretched America's finances and it reminded the world that America stands for something more than just isolating itself in a bubble, but that it has a responsibility to the rest of the world," Seth said. "The extent that America was involved in it is a reflection of its sense of responsibility to other nations, to other people, to humanity."

Aviva also believed the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan was a positive thing.  "I think that as Jews, who always had an interest in Israeli world politics, I think it was easier for us to see the evil," said Aviva.  "I think we’re used to being stuck with really bad neighbors,  so on some level it was good that America was involved."

As for their three girls, Aviva said the move has just caused them all to flourish,  even though they miss their grandparents. "Thank God for iPads," Aviva said. She was referring to the fact they can see and talk to their family back in the U.S. almost for free using the device and the Internet.

"Coming here is the fulfillment of a dream," Aviva explained. "I remember when we were dating 10 years ago, walking the streets of Manhattan fantasying about raising our unborn children in Jerusalem and now it's our reality. It's nothing short of a miracle."

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

While Thailand is a place that seems – on the surface at least – to have an anything-goes attitude ideally suited to the outrageous and controversial Gaga, appearances can be deceptive. Despite its notorious nightlife and sex shows, Thailand is very conservative in many ways, and the concept of "saving face" is important. Even if embarrassing issues are obvious, discussing them openly is frowned upon. 

'Inappropriate' behavior
For instance, two days ahead of her sold-out Bangkok concert, Gaga fell afoul of many Thais when she sent a light-hearted tweet saying: "I just landed in Bangkok baby! Ready for 50,000 screaming Thai monsters. I wanna get lost in a lady market and buy a fake Rolex."

It’s no secret that fake Rolexes are openly displayed and sold in Bangkok's infamous Patpong area, where sex is also for sale in dozens of go-go bars. But Thais don't like foreigners talking about such activities, and Gaga's comment caused a storm of protest.

"We are more civilized than you think," tweeted Thai DJ Surahit Siamwalla in response, announcing that he planned to boycott the concert.

Some Thais also took offense when Gaga appeared on stage during one of her concerts scantily dressed and sitting on a motorcycle with a Thai flag trailing behind her. The Culture Ministry made an official complaint that this use of the flag was "inappropriate and hurt Thai people's sentiment.”

The spat is indicative of a growing unease among traditional Thais over what they see as foreign influences corrupting the country. It is somewhat surprising, because for decades the country's conservative elite was strongly pro-American, in part because the Thai ruling class was desperate to prevent the spread of Communism, and embraced America's assistance.

Rungroj Yongrit / EPA

Thai fans of Lady Gaga pose for a photograph prior to a concert of U.S. pop star Lady Gaga at Rajamangala stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, May 25, 2012.

Recently, however, the conservative Thai establishment has grown increasingly hostile to the "Western" values symbolized by America, partly in response to growing pressure from ordinary people for greater democracy and freedom of speech.

One flashpoint in this debate was the treatment of a U.S. citizen arrested last year for circulating a partial translation of a book by an American author that took a critical look at the Thai royal family. Joe Gordon, who was born in Thailand but emigrated and became a car salesman in Colorado, was sentenced to two and a half years in jail last December for breaking the “lèse majesté” law that forbids criticism of the monarchy. 

The United States found itself dragged into the debate, with hundreds of royalists protesting outside the U.S. embassy in Bangkok after American diplomats criticized the jailing of Gordon and called for greater freedom of speech.

One of them was Tul Sitthisomwong, a leader of the royalist United Siam group.

NBC News

Jiraporn Prasert, an office employee in Bangkok who attended the Lady Gaga concert.

“We feel annoyed,” he said during a recent interview. “We know that America focuses on human rights and freedom of people, but “lèse majesté” in Thailand ... is not about human rights, it's about breaking the law.”

Tul said that the U.S. is meddling in other countries to try to maintain its waning influence. "They are like big brother, but right now they're weaker and getting sick but they try to be strong." 

He also said that there might be a hidden agenda in the U.S. request to use Thailand’s U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield for its humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.

“After the mission in the Middle East, they are coming back to this region, Southeast Asia. It likes confronting China – so I think America would like to have a powerful [base] again in this region. So they pick up Thailand,” he said.

It doesn't help that America is also widely seen as arrogant. “They are the best, that's what they always think, that they are the best,” Juthamas Carranco, who works in a Bangkok hotel, said.

'A good example' for Thailand
But to many younger Southeast Asians, modernity is nothing to fear, and tolerance is a virtue. America produces movies and music that they love, and represents freedom from religious and cultural restrictions.

“America is a good example for Thailand – especially the education system, work ethic and the freedom,” said Amorn Wanichwiwatana, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

“Lady Gaga is an artist, and I want Thais to look at her like that,” he added. “When she performed in the concert with Thai flag, I don't think she had a bad intention. I feel she even respected our culture.”

Jiraporn Prasert, an office worker who attended the Gaga concert in Bangkok, also didn’t believe the singer was being deliberately offensive to Thais.

“I like Lady Gaga very much,” said Jiraporn. “About the problem that we are having with her, I want people to look at her from different angles. I would like them to look at what cause the issue. Is it really from Gaga or because of things surround her?”

When Lady Gaga performed in Bangkok, I was also one of the 50,000 people who watched her perform, and whatever controversies she may have caused around the region, there was no doubt about one thing: she rocked the arena and the audience loved it.

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Special series: What the World Thinks of US 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

To Mothae, a 32-year-old nursery school teacher, the United States represents a beacon of relative racial harmony.

The U.S. and South Africa share a dark racial past, but South Africa’s is much more recent – white minority rule by the apartheid regime ended when Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and became president in 1994 after the country’s first democratic elections.

And although Mothae questioned her belief in the American people during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the election of an African-American president in the U.S. renewed her hopes for racial equality at home and abroad.

“That election made me feel so warm about the American people,” she said.

Her faith in all things American was enhanced when first lady Michelle Obama visited South Africa last year, a trip that included a visit to Soweto.

“She’s a darling,” Mothae said. “I remember the day and the time that she came to this side [South Africa]. She’s a nice lady. She’s quite down-to-earth. I like her.

“I see a mother – a caring person. She’s devoted to what she’s doing. She is an icon for all black women in America, in South Africa and around the world.”

China means big money
But when Mothae talks of the future, and envisages the type of massive investment which might transform Soweto for her child’s generation, she speaks of China, not the United States. 

“China is the number one country because they produce so many things. So many things come from China. Even in America they have to go to China. That makes them the number one country.”

Across Africa, the sudden emergence of massive Chinese investment, much of it in natural resources to satisfy the needs of its rapidly growing economy, has changed entire communities. Bilateral trade between China and Africa has grown exponentially – particularly in just the last few decades.

In 1950 China-Africa bilateral trade was just $12 million, but by 1980, it topped $1 billion, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. That number jumped over the last 30 years, with China-Africa trade volume reaching $114 billion by 2010, according to the Chinese. Some analysts estimate that figure is likely to reach $300 billion by 2015.

The money has helped to build highways, stadiums and parliament buildings across the continent – while also taking away many of the continent’s natural resources.  

Many leaders, including South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, have been impressed by China’s enthusiasm for Africa as well as its perceived “no strings attached” approach to investment.

Perhaps in response, U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a new “U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa” earlier in June.

The strategy's most important objectives are “strengthening democratic institutions and promoting economic growth, trade and investment,” according to the White House.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reinforced the idea of Africa as an ideal place for investment in the 21^st century on the same day as Obama’s announcement.

“Africa offers the highest rate of return on foreign direct investment of any developing region in the world,” said Clinton. “We in the United States like to talk about ourselves as the country that is the land of opportunity. It’s a point of national pride. Well, in the 21^st century, Africa is the continent that is the land of opportunity.”  

While the U.S. may have an uphill battle selling itself as an economic powerhouse, in terms of cultural influence, it still tops China. 

U.S. will always have Oprah and Beyonce
Close to Vilakazi Street, Ayanda Mchunu, a 26-year-old street-vendor, said his souvenir business has been boosted by a surge in Chinese tourists.

“I keep my eye out for the Americans and the Chinese; we think they have the most money,” he said.

And, despite the ascendancy of China, he said that the “soft power” of the United States would endure through its cultural influence

“Even children – they always talk about the U.S.”

“Most of the children, they watch films…The characters are from the U.S.,” Mchunu said. “That’s why they’re inspired by the U.S.”

Nearby, Lesego Seitisho, a former IT administrator, was stopping passers-by in search of work after completing a contract with a Chinese company. He found his employer’s approach to workplace discipline enlightening and hopes to find a job with another Chinese firm.

But he believed that American culture and the popularity of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce in South Africa give the United States influence that China could never match.

“America is on TV all the time and when the TV’s off America is still switched on in your mind.”

“My head says that China is number one, my heart always says America.”

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day. Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Special series: What the World Thinks of US 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

In an effort to check the pulse on the current Chinese take on the U.S., NBC News in Beijing spoke to two men with very different views on the country.

Rao Jin has made it his life’s work to channel Chinese patriotism in the face of what he sees as a Western media onslaught. On the other hand, fellow Beijinger Ye Nan can’t wait for his next trip back to Disneyland in the U.S. and thinks the Chinese and American public’s views aren’t that far apart.

Not happy with the ‘world police’
Rao first made a name for himself in China in the spring of 2008, when news of one of the biggest riots in Tibet spread around the world.  

China’s official news outlets routinely blamed the exiled Dalai Lama and his refugee government as the “instigators,” while most of the Western media took a sympathetic stand and attributed the riots to long-term persecution and dominance by China.

During the peak of the riots, quite a few foreign broadcasters, including CNN and the BBC, became targets of intense Chinese criticism and threats for allegedly biased coverage of the protests in Tibet. CNN in particular came under fire for using inaccurate photos and for remarks made by commentator Jack Cafferty, who referred to China's leaders – not the Chinese people – as a "bunch of goons and thugs."   

Mood turns ugly in Beijing

That outraged Rao, then a 24-year-old who had just graduated from the engineering physics department at Tsinghua University, one of the top educational institutions in China.

Rao, who already had his own IT company, created a website called ANTI-CNN that spread criticism of Western news reporting and soon gained wide support from Chinese citizens.

The website continued to draw millions of hits daily during the chaotic pre-Olympic torch relay when pro-Tibet protesters interrupted several legs of the torch run in America and some European countries. (One particularly egregious incident was when a Chinese Paralympian in a wheel chair was attacked by pro-Tibetan protesters while she bravely guarded the torch).

Originally from the southern coastal province of Fujian, Rao has since become a quasi-spokesman for those in China’s population who are unhappy about how China is viewed and reported in the West. He has been interviewed by many foreign media in China, as well as being invited to events by embassies and NGOs in Beijing.

“I don’t think we represent the whole young generation, but we do represent some,” said Rao at his office in a high-rise in northern Beijing, where 30 employees concentrated on their computers.

Rao’s original ANTI-CNN website became April Media in 2010, named after a month he likes for its symbolism of power and rejuvenation. He said the website “represents a generation of youth who are familiar with Western culture and have international views as well as a sense of patriotism.”

Aiming to become a cross between a Chinese Huffington Post and a think-tank, April Media now has about 200 columnists and almost one million registered members.

On the left side of the homepage, next to a small photo of the Statue of Liberty, there are a few U.S.-related articles, including “American truth: leader of wasting energy,” “Is property expensive in the U.S.?” “Do American minorities get preferential treatment?” “Americans really don’t wear long underwear?” “What is an American green card?”

Rao toured the United States from the West Coast to the East Coast in late 2010. He was impressed by the natural scenery, but didn’t find the real America to be too different from his pre-conceived notions and what he saw in Hollywood movies.

“In aspects of the economy, politics and culture, the U.S. has shown an admirable spirit of innovation,” Rao told NBC News in his office, but he argued that America is “a world leader that failed to perform well.”

“The U.S. has always imposed its own values on others and acted as a hegemonic state and as the world police,” he said. “It has fought too many wars it shouldn’t have fought.”

America ‘fights for justice’
A short drive from Rao’s office, 42-year-old Ye Nan, a business director of another influential news portal, has a completely different view of the U.S.  

“The U.S. is just like a strong, robust, but brusque, next-door neighbor,” said Ye in a garden next to his office. “He fights for justice and gets himself involved when there’s a problem. He gives everyone else the impression of being warm-hearted, and having a sense of justice. Some people are afraid of him, but most like him.”

Ye’s family story is like a condensed version of China’s own tumultuous history. 

His grandfather was one of the earliest Chinese students to study in the United States, graduating from Johns Hopkins University in the 1920s and being trained at the West Point Military Academy. After he went back to China, he fought shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers in Burma and India during World War II.

But by the time Ye’s father came of age during China’s Cultural Revolution, Chinese-U.S. relations had changed. During Chairman Mao’s “Young Intellectuals Go Down to the Countryside” campaign in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he and other privileged youth were forced to learn from workers and farmers. He was forced to leave Beijing and died in an accident in Tibet when Ye Nan was only five.

“I’m sure he was told to write those communist posters criticizing America since he was educated,” said Ye in looking back at his father’s life during the Cultural Revolution.

Ye first set his foot on American soil last year to visit his wife, who was a visiting psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley.

His impressions were positive, “The air was much better, people were friendly, cars would wait for pedestrians,” he said. He was also happy to be able to surf any websites – quite a different from his experience in China, where many sites are blocked, including Twitter and Facebook.

What really amazed Ye, though, was the prompt reply from Johns Hopkins University when his wife emailed them and asked if they could help find Ye’s grandfather’s files. The university sent a 10-page file, including letters and academic documents. Such free and quick service is almost impossible in China, he said.

“Freedom is in American people’s blood,” Ye said. “Individual freedom is the basis of everything, while China values collectivism that stresses personal sacrifice for the group.”

He thinks, though, that the differences are narrowing.

“In my grandfather’s generation, America and China were friends who fought together in World War II. In my father’s generation, they were enemies. The young generation now is greatly influenced by America. They all drink Coca-Cola and watch Hollywood movies. They agree more than they disagree. The world is flat and the two countries will gradually come to a consensus on many matters.” 

Ye said his next trip to the U.S. will probably include a visit to Disneyland that he promised his 8-year-old son. And like many Chinese parents, Ye and his wife hope to send their son to study in the U.S. one day. 

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day. Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans  

Stories in the series: What the World Thinks of US  

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

"The situation on the ground is not what the U.S. government says, that they're only targeting militants," said Akbar. "The situation on the ground is that a huge number of civilians are being killed."

Part of the problem, according to Akbar, is that until recently, most Pakistanis didn't know or didn't care about the drone strikes. But public political anger, denouncing the strikes as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, has helped draw attention to the issue over the last few years.

Today, drones have become a political touchstone, regularly decried as part of politician's campaign speeches, prominently featured in fiery protest rallies, and sitting squarely at the center of a diplomatic war of words between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Collateral damage
Akbar's legal challenges come as a recent poll shows considerable opposition in countries around the world to the U.S. drone campaign. The Pew Research Center study found that more than half of those polled in 17 of 20 countries disapprove of the use of drone strikes to target extremists. However, Americans see things very differently and largely support their use, with only 38 percent disapproving.

Though public perception may help him to gain traction, Akbar said his cases are based on the evidence he's gathering from strike locations in coordination with communities in North Waziristan, the tribal agency in which the overwhelming majority of strikes have occurred. That cache of evidence includes everything from family testimonies and images of the identifiable bodies and body parts recovered from the attack sites, to actual fragments of the Hellfire missiles fired from the remotely-piloted drones.

"I believe in very simple principles that were taught to us by the West," said Akbar. "That everyone is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. So anyone who is killed in drone strikes, unless and until his guilt is established in some independent forum – that person is innocent."

According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a not-for-profit organization basing its study on reports from government officials, media reports, and academic sources, anywhere between 2,486 and 3,188 people have been killed in 332 U.S. drones strikes inside Pakistan since 2004. The fact that the report is based on wide-ranging and conflicting reports, speaks to the difficulty of establishing hard facts in this part of the world. Similarly, the same report also estimated that the number of civilians killed in those strikes ranges from 482 to 832.

According to another study done by the New America Foundation, a non-profit public policy institute in Washington, D.C., a total of 43 men identified as "militant leaders" were killed in those strikes.  

A major point of controversy is who counts as a “civilian” versus a “combatant.” The Obama administration defines all military-age males in a strike zone as “combatants,” unless there is explicit posthumous evidence proving them innocent, according to a report in the New York Times.  

Pakistanis who live in those strike zones dispute that definition, and claim innocent women and children are being killed as well.  But the administration’s broad definition does help explain how they could reach a very low, civilian casualty count as a result of drone attacks.

U.S. officials, who – for the first time – publicly admitted using drones in April of this year, have said the strikes are "targeted...against specific al-Qaida terrorists" and are carried out "in full accordance with the law, and in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States and save American lives."

But Akbar argues that the identities of many killed are unknown, that nearby children are often killed by flying shrapnel, and that any "collateral damage" deaths are simply impossible to justify – even when a "high-value" terrorist is killed as a result.

"The problem is that no one cares if ‘nobody’ is killed, and by ‘nobody,’ I mean a person who is nobody. A person who is probably just living in that area, has no money, no education, no representation," said Akbar. "The point here is that if we are successful in killing one or two people who we really want to kill, and in order to do that we kill 40 people – who cares? And this is a sad kind of attitude we have from the American government and unfortunately from my own government."

‘Can’t help but be angry…’
In order to represent the families of civilian drone strikes victims in court, Akbar first had to win their trust, which has been an uphill battle in communities that see themselves are separate and distinct from the rest of country. Many in the targeted areas are under-represented and under-funded on the national level, and feel more kinship to their fellow ethnic tribesmen across the border in Afghanistan than with the Pakistani population east of their northwest territory.

"When we started working in Waziristan in 2010, that was the seventh year of the drone strikes," said Akbar. "People had no trust in their own countrymen. They said, ‘You have not looked after us, you haven't really cared what was happening here, so why would we now talk to you and give you evidence of what's really happening here?’"

So Akbar partnered with Noor Behram, a soft-spoken journalist and father of six, born and raised in North Waziristan, who had witnessed and documented multiple drone strikes in his own area, and was wondering why no one in the rest of the world seemed to care.

"When you live in an area where there is war, where there is suffering, where there are drone attacks, where there's not proper reporting about what's going on…. Even if you're a professional, you can't help but become angry at what you see,” said Behram. “You start to wonder how you can take the voices you hear and carry them to the rest of the world."

Behram established a notification system based on walkie-talkies and a trusted network of sources across the region where curfews and rough terrain can make it difficult to travel quickly from one area to another. When the attacks occur nearby, as many do to his home in Miramshah, he says he is often the first one with a camera at the site. Entire buildings are reduced to rubble heaps. Residual fires burn in nearby homes or businesses. Crowds gather to dig through the wreckage for survivors and gather body parts.

The frequency with which the strikes are carried out, Behram said, has his community on edge.

"People are very worried, very tense all the time," he said. "When the missile is fired from the plane, there is a loud explosion. When it hits the ground, it makes a terrifying noise. The people below, they just start running. Pieces of missile, they fly everywhere, very far, into other people's houses."

Despite experiencing strikes so close to his home that he and his family have been forced to flee in the middle of the night, Behram said he harbors no anger towards the American people – it's their policies, he says, that should be reviewed.

"I think, even if they said, 'we've killed 100 terrorists,' and just one child was also killed…If you, at that time, you see that child's body, you talk to his mother and father – I think, for me, this is a very serious thing,” he said. “That one child, sitting in his house, could be killed like this.”

Behram patiently documents what he sees, sometimes spending hours with reluctant family members to convince them to share their testimony for the lawsuits being filed.

"I tell them there are people who want to help you. If you want help, then I can talk to them for you," Behram said. "Because if you don't talk to them or let them help you, I don't know what will happen next."

‘I want to give them their rights’
Working together, Akbar and Behram have gathered evidence for 13 petitions filed in Islamabad and Peshawar courts, most of which are filed against the government of Pakistan. In total, the lawsuits represent 71 families who have lost 100 family members in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan.

Despite the fact that he can only legally file suit within Pakistan, Akbar said three of the cases do involve criminal litigation against current and former U.S. officials, including an alleged former CIA station chief and a former CIA legal counsel. But taking on a U.S. administration loathe to even acknowledge the classified program, much less engage legally on the matter, means that those lawsuits are largely intended to send a message at this stage – that he, and the people he represents, hold both Pakistani and U.S. officials responsible for the deaths of their family members.

"I want justice for these people so they feel that they're part of the system," said Behram. "Because on the one side we ask them to behave and fall in line….and on the other side, we don't give them any rights. I want to give them their rights."

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day. Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Special series: What the World Thinks of US 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American