How is this possible?

[sushi]

68% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein played a role in 9/11.
After all this time? Don't people read anymore?

American Misperceptions
10 September 2003

http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_printable&report_id=88&language_id=1

[kmla]

1. Don't people read?

Unfortunately, not much.

Just fed a steady diet of video pablum, and they keep lappin' it up...

[glarius]

20. Brainwashing works!....

Daily on TV, Bush supporters and the media repeat the supposed connection between Saddam and 9/11!!!....It's stated as if it's a given fact over and over....The average viewer takes it as being the truth!!

[sushi]

23. It's sad but true

John Macarthur, author, journalist and publisher of 'Harper's Magazine':

"I counted, I think the number of times Bush said the words 'terror', or 'terrorist', or 'terrorism'. I think it came up to about 30 or 35 times. Clearly, they feel, the Administration feels, that if they just say 'terror' enough, or 'terrorism', it will scare enough people to get Bush re-elected."


http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/trans.php3?dte=2003-09-10&title=John+Macarthur+Interview

[chadm]

39. Of course it does...

look at how concerned people here are with the notion of "electability", a favorite notion used by the media to block us from getting what we truly want. They define the playing field and you guys march onto it.

[elfwitch]

2. not at all shocked

Most people will believe anything you tell them.
They want to feel right.
They want to feel justified.
They are scared and easily swayed.

Most people get their news, if they bother to keep track at all, from television. If the TV says it then it is TRUE. Why would the nice men on the TV lie?

That is why that number is so high.

[sushi]

24. Fear

must be the number one reason. I think we should listen to Dr. Phil(!):
"We don't control the way we go, but we control the way we live."

[Az]

3. Repitition works

[sushi]

10. That's true

if you're lazy.

[RobertSeattle]

15. Yep

If you mention 9/11, then Saddam Hussein, then 9/11, then Saddam Hussein, then 9/11, then Saddam Hussein, etc, but never clearly say that there is no association between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, the might hoards will make an association between 9/11 and Hussein without thinking about it.

[sushi]

19. Critical minds don't

just believe everything! I can't accept that 68% of people in the most advanced country in the world are so gullible. Something is wrong here.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

32. Yes there is.

American Media.

[Az]

4. Repitition works

[sushi]

11. That's true

if you don't have a curious mind.

[Az]

5. Repitition works

[havocmom]

9. now That was funny!

Repitition is the lesson the Newt taught...
over and over and over again

[Braden]

12. saddam did it!

LOL

[sushi]

16. And they are too busy

watching Jerry Springer, and don't have time to read the papers and all that's available on the internet. But SIXTY-EIGHT percent?

[ameriphile]

6. It must be all that "fair and balanced" news coverage... n/t

n/t

[Hanuman]

7. I don't know...

Not even the Booosh administration is claiming there was any direct connection.

[Capn Sunshine]

13. They got burned with the WMD lie, but they imply it constantly

Look at *'s Sunday night speech; some reference to "defeating Saddam" and "fighting terrorism" in the same breath

[BurtWorm]

14. But they use every chance they can get to blur the lines

as Bush did on Sunday. Just calling the war on Iraq part of the war on terror is confusing. It is NOT terror at issue in Iraq. It never was, until the admin started creating terror out of phony WMD reports.

[benddem]

17. They didn't claim it

BUT they did allude to it. Bushit kept drawing a connection between 9-11 and Iraq. Remember Wes Clark had people call him right after 9-11 asking him to blame it on Iraq BUSHIT IS Evil :evilfrown:

[Japhy_Ryder]

8. People don't bother with the news

So there's no way they'd know. Also don't overlook the inherent American racism underlying this. I'll bet a large portion of that 68% doesn't note any differenct between anyone of Islamic faith from the Middle East. "Them people's all the same"

[Cocoa]

21. racism

I agree, it definitely enables this lie.

[sushi]

31. You are so right

"Them people's all the same"

The attitude of ignorant people. 'Them people' of the Islamic faith from the Middle East are stupid, and dirty, and support Osama bin Laden. Fundamentalists who want Americans dead, and therefore should be killed first.

Do you think they can ever believe that there are many Muslims who are moderate and BETTER educated than MANY Americans and other westerners?

[Wetzelbill]

18. If it is said and heard enough times it just becomes a fact

in the minds of most people. See old wive's tales, myths, legends, and Neo-Cons.

[TSElliott]

22. Well there was that Judge that

awarded a couple of families millions in the case against Osama bin Ladena and Iraq saying that Iraq had a meager involvement in 9/11.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/05/08/Worldandnation/Court_case_links_Iraq.shtml

[uptohere]

25. OK I'm stupid, where is absolute evidence that he didn't ?

I know there was some connect the dots involved in thinking that it was gospel but never saw evidence that the events being used to show the link were just plain false.

Hey, nobody sees everything !

[Wetzelbill]

27. No links at all but even bigger

Saddam and Osama hate each others guts. Bin laden has been after Hussein's head for awhile. Saddam is a Sunni Muslim and was a secular dictator who spent his whole career brutally repressing Shi'a -in particular the Wahabbi type of Islam bin Laden practices- resistance in Iraq. Saddam is like Machiavelli over there, he made heads roll and the Shiites and Kurds felt that wrath pretty harshly. Bin Laden had been calling for Saddam's murder up until he went into exile. Now for these two to have links is almost as absurd as Ariel Sharon and Yassir Arafat joining up for some reason or another. It is nearly incomprehensible. To be fair, there was a supposed al-quaeda-ba'athist meeting over ten years ago, but nothing came of it. Saddam and Osama certainly weren't together or anything. It was brief and the people involved were never in contact again. Since then they all have shown nothing but disdain for each other and this is about all the proof of a relationship that the U.S. has on that one. I'll see if I can find some links and post them as a topic in a little while.

[sushi]

28. That's right

Osama bin laden must be very happy * got rid of Saddan Hussein.

[uptohere]

33. OK thanks

wasn't there supposed to be some deal where Mo Atta met some Iraqi in eastern Europe that was supposed to be the link ?

Maybe I'm mixing something up. They were on a little frenzy of finding all sorts of sinister stuff Atta was up to so I kinda zoned out on it (bullshit-o-meter was glowing a little too red if you know what I mean).

[sushi]

34. Where is absolute evidence that he did?

Evidence strong enough to justify unilaterally invading the country, causing the death and suffering of innocents and destruction of its infrastructure, and as a result deepening their hatred and increasing the number of terrorists?

[neebob]

26. I wouldn't understand it

if it weren't for my mother. She's a nice Mormon lady who lives in Utah. She was essentially trapped in her house taking care of my severely disabled, rabid Clinton-hating, Rush-believing father from 1996 until he died this last April. She doesn't have a computer and didn't have cable until just before Dad died. So, for the second half of the Clinton administration, her only sources of information were three local network channels, the church-owned local newspaper, the Limbaugh letter, and assorted right-wing newsletters and books.

Now that she gets Fox, that's the only news she watches because it's "fair and balanced." She's become a devotee of Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter. Bush is righteous and good and on the job, looking out for her interests and mine. Anything and everything that might conceivably cast him in a poor light is either Clinton's fault or a lie. There is no talking her out of it, no showing her the truth. She is one of the majority. I've been brainwashed by the liberal media and am in need of prayer for badmouthing the president - her president - and this wonderful country and not supporting the troops and what have you. Next on her reading list? Treason.

My mother believes in Bush & Co. because they appear to share her very traditional, black-and-white morals. Thinking I could poke a tiny hole in the wall, I told her Karl Rove had said the dreaded F-word to Al Franken, but that's doubtful because Karl Rove went to her high school and might be LDS.

My mother is not stupid. She used to be a Democrat.

[sushi]

29. I prefer to read and

find out as much as I can, and then make up my own mind. I decide for myself what makes sense, and who I can or simply can not believe.
Your mother has made up her mind and you just have to agree to disagree.

[neebob]

36. Me too

That's my point: She believes it because she wants to. We do agree to disagree, for the most part, but certain conversations have a way of going there. I don't know which is more disturbing: the blatant, transparent criminality of the current administration or my mother sucking it up like Hoover.

[contract3d]

30. better data on American misperceptions

PIPA poll is still appalling (esp. the last question) but not quite as bad.
I couldn't get much impression of the actual poll behind the article sushi linked.

Note that 2/3rds think the admin implied a connection.
Not on purpose of course. ;)

"Do you think the Bush Administration did or did not imply that Iraq
 under Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11th attacks?"
 
    Did      No
  Imply      Answer
       Didn't 
       Imply 
       %  %  %   
 7/03 67 25  8   
 6/03 71 25  4   
      
"Please select what you think is the best description of the
 relationship between the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein
 and the terrorist group al Qaeda: 3/4 sample (MoE ± 3.5)
 
                         7/03 6/03 
                            % %
 No connection at all       7 7  
 Limited contact           35 26  
 Substantial support,
 but not involved in 9/11  33 36  
 Directly involved in 9/11 20 25  
 No answer                  6  6  
 
"Is it your impression that the U.S. has or has not found clear
 evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the
 al Qaeda terrorist organization?" 3/4 sample (MoE ± 3.5)
 
    Has     No
  Found     Answer
     Hasn't
     Found 
       % %  %   
 7/03 45 49 6   
 6/03 52 43 5   

[CWebster]

35. Did you hear loud voices coming from congressional Dems

contesting any of the misinformation at the time?

No they were soiling their breeches worrying about their political standing in the polls.

[sushi]

38. What do you expect

from politicians. They are taking care of number one. It's scary, when you think of it, that we are in the hands of a small group of people, politicians, which is why it's so important to choose good ones.

[ChangeMan]

37. Scores Don't Pay Attention...Why?

It's not all that surprising.

Most Americans just don't pay attention. Why? Let me (poorly) para-phrase:

'Recreation/Entertinment is the opium of the people"

Give them enough sports-reality shows-video games-concerts-festivals etc. and they will stay fat and happy. Then once the smoke clears and they try to check a book out of the library, or peacefully assemble, they will wonder why they can't.

Those of us on DU pay close attention to what's going on because we realize how important the next election really is. We also know just how much peril our country is in right now, and that those who are currently holding power will stop at nothing to further their own ends.