"Governments of some of our allies may still support us but the people in those nations think we're the next Nazi Germany. While I know it not to be true this perception of America unsettles me a great deal and is the second main reason I oppose Bush. We need to have a clean slate in dealing with our friends."

I think you are being successful spun.

Japan is an economic superpower. When Japan was rising sharply as a economic superpower- there was much interest by Americans in Japan and some opposition to Japan from Americans. If Japan had continued rising at it's break neck speed [instead having a huge economic bubble] more American would have predictably become oppose to Japan. They wouldn't been opposed because Japan was doing anything other than being a even larger economic superpower- but they could have been able find lots of reasons why they disliked Japan.

America is the largest economic superpower on Earth. But in comparison it's an even larger miltary superpower. America has been an miltary and economic superpower for over 60 years. [Of course the Soviet Union was a competing miltary superpower.] We are a superpower because we can project miltary power everywhere on the globe. We project power in order to deter some tinhat dicator from using it's miltary might against other countries in the region. Saddam is precisely the tinhat dicator that our miltary was made to deter. The only quibble in regards to this is that it could seen as an "Arab matter" and involved "non-aligned" states. Now, Saudi Arabia weren't "non-aligned" and the Arabs wanted the US to do something about Saddam's aggression.
If we ignored Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, we would be required to ask what was the purpose of our miltary? If we are not willing to use our miltary in the middle east, what about the other areas in the world?
In other words, Saddam had a idea that the US was merely a paper tiger, and he thought it was worth the risk to test this theory. If proven correct by our lack of response, this "might" encourage other nations to test their own theories. [And the UN would becomes even more useless]
Now, this American global projection of power was largely to do with the Cold war- and we want a gradual transition in which regional powers take more responsiblity for their own local security interests and additionally be willing to help in matters "beyond of their immediate area".
And if this works, America wouldn't need to be a miltary superpower in order to try to maintain global security.