Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 -- up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds. Pollsters deemed the increase both "substantial" and "surprising" in light of persistent press reports to the contrary in recent years.The survey did not speculate on what caused the shift in opinion, which supports President Bush's original rationale for going to war. Respondents were questioned in early July after the release of a Defense Department intelligence report that revealed coalition forces recovered 500 aging chemical weapons containing mustard or sarin gas nerve agents in Iraq.
The bolded statement is something of an indication as to just how much faith in the media and journalists in general the people have lost.
Regardless, I think the reason this poll was so high is that it was taken, as the article indicates, right after the Defense Department released information about WMD's in Iraq. Your average American, who doesn't have the time (or perhaps the interest) in devoting a lot of time to monitoring the minute details of American politics, tends to be most influenced by whatever he/she last saw on television or read in the newspaper. This is why I think support for the war in Iraq, and President Bush in general, has dipped over recent months.
The American public is fed a steady diet of negative news about Iraq and slanted commentary on the Bush administration by the media. Since that media is the only place where most of these people get their information, their view tends to be more negative than it would be if they were presented a less blinkered accounting of current events.
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Comments: 17
Belief doesn't make truth.
We've found tons of yellowcake uranium, not to mention thousands of shells filled with sarin gas. These weren't what our intelligence said we'd find, and certainly don't comprise the threat we thought Iraq was, but what can you do?
The President didn't have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight when he made his decision to invade.
But, in the interest of fairness, I will be more than willing to eat my hat if a single one of you "there were no WMD's!" people can find me a single major American political leader who didn't think Iraq had WMD's pre-invasion.
Find me one, and I'll eat my hat.
Of COURSE, there were WMD in Iraq. We helped them acquire them and target them against Iran during the 80's, remember? Let's see...who was running the government back then...Oh yeah, Rancid Ronnie, Poppy Bush, Dicktator Cheney, Rummy, and other "interesting" characters that somehow always seem to appear wherever there is scandal, corruption, warmongering, and war profiteering.
What kookie Sanitarium and his sidekick Happy Hookster failed to point out in their moment of public insanity last month, was that the "WMD" that had been uncovered was "pre-1991," and had been noted and published by the DOD long ago. They also noted that whatever was left in the shells by the time that they were recovered was nothing close to what it originally was, and certainly no longer a "WMD."
Oh well. If it makes the wingnuts happy to carry on with this delusion, so be it. Perhaps, it's their way of justifying the merciless slaughter of so many tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
"The President didn't have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight when he made his decision to invade."
Of course not. However, he did have the benefit of intelligence reports (from around the globe) that indicated that there was no evidence that Iraq had reconstituted any of its previous WMD programs. UN inspectors considered the threat removed in 1998.
But, with the world jumpy from 9/11, and chimpy and his warmongers anxious to invade and occupy a soverign nation that posed no threat, the UN (and Iraq) agreed to let inspectors back in to thoroughly scour the landscape in search of ANY possible remaining threat. Gee...I wonder why Georgie never let them finish their work? It sure seems that it could've saved everybody an awful lot of trouble, donut?
Meanwhile, King Georgie failed to secure hundreds of tons of high explosives once he illegally invade, and that quickly found its way into the hands of those who wish us harm (IED, anyone?). At the same time, he also managed to leave a nuclear material waste site completely unguarded for months, until it was found that it had been looted (dirty bomb, anyone?).
You're doing a "heckuva job" at "keeping us safe," booshie boy.
THAT, as we all know all too well by now, is a negative, yet a stunning 50% believe that they were there. This is very telling of the incredibly successful propoganda campaign that the administration carried out, with the able assistance of the "liberal media."
Immediately prior to the last election, 90% of Fox viewers were convinced that there were WMD found in Iraq. Among all voters, the number was a shocking 70%. Of course, when you've got the president of the US flat out lying publicly about this, as well as a massive, focused propoganda campaign of misinformation, what can you expect, right?
At any rate, as the DOD has proclaimed, what was found in Iraq hardly qualifies as WMD at this time, unless your definition of WMD is "Weapon of Minor Discomfort."
Carry on.
I certainly agree, Paul, but when you read up on the PNAC and learn what their vision was for the middle east, as well as what their plan was for bringing it to fruition, you quickly realize that it is not by accident that we're there, nor is it an accident that we'll soon be in Iran and Syria. It's all been planned for many years.
Google?
Project for a New American Century. This is a group of neocon nutbags such as Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Quale, Perle, Kristol, among others, that took it upon themselves to craft a vision for a Pax Americana for the new century. The plan called for early invasion and occupation of Iraq, to be followed shortly after by invasions and occupations of Iran, Syria, and eventually, every nation in the middle east. The goal is complete domination, or empire building, if you will. They're certifiably insane.
Luckily, all of their insanity has been published for all to see and gasp in mortal shock at. The group was formally established in 1997, though the crux of their vision can be seen published as early as 1996, in a strategy entitled "Clean break," written by neocon nutbags Richard Perle, David Wurmser, and Douglas Feith.
I urge you to embark upon the frightening journey into the minds of the insane neocon, in order to illuminate yourself as to what's going on in the middle east currently, and in the immediate future.
~~
Wikiality
Colbert has frequently mentioned Wikipedia on his show, and in the July 31, 2006 "The WØRD" segment he coined the portmanteau of Wikipedia and reality, Wikiality. Wikiality, by his definition, means the alteration of reality by making some fictitious edit in Wikipedia. He checked Wikipedia to determine whether Oregon was California's Canada or Washington's Mexico before deciding to declare it Idaho's Portugal and pretending to change Wikipedia to make it so. He also instructed viewers to change the elephant article to say that the number of elephants has tripled in the last six months. He goes on to express his love for Wikipedia as it presents a philosophy similar to Colbert's own truthiness (that intuition is more true than fact) as "if enough people believe something" it becomes true.
I could go on here with all the facts and reasons. Bush lied and inflated the truth. The experts at the time before the war did not believe that iraq had weapons. they believed it was all wrong. The dept of energy had all the reasons the tubes were not for weapons of mas destruction they were the wrong siz e and not possible. It had been verified that Iraq did not try to buy yellow cake in Africa more to the point b/c it did not need to it already had more than enough. the evidence was twisted and manipulated to appear exactly what it was not b/c the Bush administration was hell bent on invading under any circumstances. We all know how well that has worked out for the Iraqis and the region....
I rest my case.