"Ignorance Is Strength" for Bush on Iraq

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In George Orwell's 1984 "Ignorance Was Strength" for Big Brother's regime, and so it is for President Bush. "A third of the American public believes U.S. forces found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a recent poll. And 22 percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons. Before the war, half of those polled in a survey said Iraqis were among the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. But such weapons have not been found in Iraq, and were never used. Most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. None were Iraqis. ... These results startled the pollsters who conducted and analyzed the surveys. ... Pollsters and political analysts see several reasons for the gaps between facts and beliefs: the public's short attention span on foreign news, fragmentary or conflicting media reports that lacked depth or skepticism and Bush administration efforts to sell a war by oversimplifying the threat. ... Bush has described the preemptive attack on Iraq as "one victory in the war on terror that began Sept. 11." Bush officials also claim that Iraq sheltered and helped al-Qaida operatives. ... And GOP pollsters said any controversy over weapons wouldn't change public attitudes because ridding Iraq of an oppressive regime was reason enough for war for many Americans. 'People supported the war for national security reasons and that shifted to humanitarian reasons when they saw evidence of Saddam's atrocities,' said Republican strategist Frank Luntz."