WSJ: Many Americans Still Believe Hussein Had Links to al Qaeda

[sabra]

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113579153636833083-Xd1XL6NfsXVhzTL0_JKthJ9Wiic_20061229.html?mod=blogs

Many Americans Still Believe
Hussein Had Links to al Qaeda


Sizeable minorities of Americans still believe Saddam Hussein had "strong links to al Qaeda," a Harris Interactive poll shows, though the number has fallen substantially this year.

About 22% of U.S. adults believe Mr. Hussein helped plan 9/11, the poll shows, and 26% believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded. Another 24% believe several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, according to the online poll of 1,961 adults.

However, all of these beliefs have declined since February of this year, when 64% of those polled believed Mr. Hussein had strong links to al Qaeda and 46% said Mr. Hussein helped plan 9/11. At that time, more than a third said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and 44% said several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis.

Currently, 56% of adults believe Iraqis are better off now than they were under Mr. Hussein, down from 76% in February. Nearly half of those polled say they believe Iraq, under Mr. Hussein, was a threat to U.S. security, down from 61% in February.

[LeftNYC]

1. *SMACK*

Who are these people?

[sabra]

2. there is a "positive" aspect to the poll - all numbers are down...

[LeftNYC]

5. I am glad that the numbers are down...

but I would love to talk to those who still believe...

[0007]

16. I am too! Talking to these people would be like talking to a drunk

I think!

How many still think men going to the moon what a hoax?

[RaleighNCDUer]

22. I don't think talking with them would do any good.

My personal poll revealed that of that 26%, 17% are psychologically incapable of admitting error; 19% are religious fanatics who will believe anything bad said about any Muslim; and 64% are outright morons.

[LibertyorDeath]

49. My poll results were 100% mildly to moderately

Retarded!

[arewenotdemo]

50. Flat-Earthers, religious nutjobs and morans

Bush's "base".

[MaineYooper]

3. they're the same people who keep the psychic friend hotline in business

and horoscopes in the papers, etc, etc

[LeftNYC]

4. or write for The New York Post...nt

[Orangepeel]

10. the some people you can fool all of the time

the willfully ignorant

[Straight Shooter]

13. They aren't "people"

They are brainless automatons who wander around in a fog of confusion, accepting anything transmitted to their circuitry by their Lords and Masters: Darth Cheney, Babble bush, and Kindasleazy.

[saigon68]

19. These lords and masters

The Gang of THREE

[The Stranger]

6. This is the real enemy -- massively misinformed groups of people.

They are the ideological jailors for the intelligentsia.

[nookiemonster]

45. You are absolutely correct.

Vast amounts of misinformation, or undereported information and the repeating of RW talking points.

Even people with busy lives need to research these issues and call out the bullshit. Unfortunately, many are still drinking the koolaid.

:banghead:

[skipos]

7. Bush's base: people not in touch with reality. nt

[cdb]

8. About 22% of U.S. adults are fucking clueless

and 26% believe anything they are told....Another 24% believe misinformation spewed by the MSM, who in turn were fed crap.

[LeftNYC]

9. whats in their kool-aid? nt

[EstimatedProphet]

11. Hooray for Fox News!

Lying and corrupting news standards since 1996!

[UpInArms]

12. is the FAUX Snews viewership on the decline?

These people have fallen on the stupidity tree and hit every branch on the way down.

:banghead:

[xchrom]

14. yeah -- i don't believe it.

those folks lie like bush does.

[Chomp]

15. Whatever way you...

...cut it, it is absolutely disgracful that so many people are so fucking clueless. A mass cull of these idiots would do no harm.

[neweurope]

17. Small wonder. I used to think the majority of Americans is dumb,

but then I read a few speeches of Bush & Co. Even in his latest Christmas speech Bush was trying to make that impression again, of course without actually saying so. Those who aren't trained to listen exactly must have once again have gotten the impression that Saddam hat something to do with 9/11.

------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[bif]

18. Many Americans dumb as a bag of hammers

[wookie294]

20. I think these people know the truth, but refuse to accept it

There is NO proof that could dissuade the 22% who think Hussein helped plan 9/11. So, it's not like these people are "ignorant." They simply refuse to accept the truth. Accepting the truth would muddy their admiration and love for Monkey and Gravy Face and the soldiers being killed for no reason in Iraq.

[SOS]

21. Correlation?

"The National Adult Literacy Survey (ALS) evaluated the skills of adults in three areas: prose, document and quantitative proficiency. Results showed:
23% were at the lowest of five levels. This group is functionally illiterate."

[artv28]

24. It's not just the functionally illiterate

Some are not realizing that there are also educated people with professional jobs who don't follow politics or current events who still believe this. I used to share an apartment with a guy who never watched news or read a paper except for the sports section. He watched several hours of TV a night but only ESPN, reality shows, music channels, and movies channels. He would come home from work and immediately change the channel if I had cable news on in the living room. He thought I was the biggest loser for watching the debates in my room instead of the baseball play-offs. Anyway, he sometimes made pro-war comments that made it clear that he didn't understand that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 or Al-Qaeda. This is as recent as a couple of months ago. Whenever I tried to correct him he would get angry and respond with "I don't like talking politics" and then change the subject.

This is a guy who grew up in a blue state, has 4 years of college, and a white collar job in Manhattan. He votes Republican even though I can tell he doesn't really understand the difference between the parties. He once said he doesn't like Dems because black people vote for them. I don't think he is a rare exception. I work with a couple other IT professionals here my NY office who are Bush supporters and they show the same ignorance. It makes sense to me when I hear that Republicans are less likely to participate in exit poll surveys. I think a lot of them don't understand the questions or don't want to admit the real reasons they vote the way they do.

[beltanefauve]

25. You are describing my family!

They're willfully ignorant. Everyone's had four years of college, but its a big, bad world out there, and if our leaders lie or cover up the truth its for our own good. Dissent is unpatriotic, they believe, and to dissent means the terrorists (or the Communists, or the Boogeyman, name your villain) have won, even though the villains concurrently hate us for our freedoms at the same time.

The last time I visited with my family was during the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Although they were horrified to see Americans suffer like that on TV (Which is ALWAYS on) they seemed more concerned about how vulnerable it showed us to be to terrorism. I even overheard whispered blame-the-victim comments about how maybe they shouldn't have built below sea level, the whispers being for my benefit, of course. And the anniversary of 9/11 occurred during my visit. The old man still wants to get revenge for that. Years ago, when I even suggested that it was a MIHOP, I got hit with a barrage of anger, and that I was wrong for "placing blame". They, of course, have no problem with blame, though.

I didn't see them this past Christmas. My tongue was still too sore from all the biting I did this past September.

[madmark]

23. Well i don't know if this is a silver lining; but apparently 22%

of the population can be defrauded at will.

[LynnTheDem]

52. ROTFLMAO!!!

Thanks for the laugh!

:rofl:

[HuffleClaw]

26. funny how its the same percentage

as the kool-aid drinkers. the ones who listen to rush spout these same myths day after day. so... this is good news, that only the die-hard bushistas still believe this crap.

[BlueInPhilly]

27. The same survey also reveals that...

22% of Americans believe they have been abducted by UFOs
28% think that poor people are poor because they are lazy
17% believe their dogs talk to them
35% blame Clinton for Hurricane Katrina

and

99% believe GWB to be the BESTEST president ever!

:crazy:

[OKNancy]

28. Kick

:kick:

[VaYallaDawg]

29. Those are probably the same people who can't tell you the name

of their state's governor or one of their US senators.

[RedEarth]

30. Many Americans Still Believe Hussein Had Links to al Qaeda

Many Americans Still Believe
Hussein Had Links to al Qaeda

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
December 29, 2005

Sizeable minorities of Americans still believe Saddam Hussein had "strong links to al Qaeda," a Harris Interactive poll shows, though the number has fallen substantially this year.

About 22% of U.S. adults believe Mr. Hussein helped plan 9/11, the poll shows, and 26% believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded. Another 24% believe several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, according to the online poll of 1,961 adults.

However, all of these beliefs have declined since February of this year, when 64% of those polled believed Mr. Hussein had strong links to al Qaeda and 46% said Mr. Hussein helped plan 9/11. At that time, more than a third said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and 44% said several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis.

Currently, 56% of adults believe Iraqis are better off now than they were under Mr. Hussein, down from 76% in February. Nearly half of those polled say they believe Iraq, under Mr. Hussein, was a threat to U.S. security, down from 61% in February.

See the full results of the Harris poll:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113579153636833083-Xd1XL6NfsXVhzTL0_JKthJ9Wiic_20061229.html?mod=blogs

[onehandle]

31. People are morons.

That's why Fox News exists.

[sakabatou]

43. I don't understand them either...

[napi21]

32. I know. I hear them on cspan WJ all the time!

I end up screaming at my TV!!!!

I've even heard guests explain to the caller that Shrub Cheney & Rummy all said there was NO evidence of any connection, and the damn caller argues that the guest is taking their words out of context!!!!

Some people believe what they want to, no matter what!

[CottonBear]

33. Many Americans are either supid or don't read or listen to the news

or both. :( :scared:
I've encountered a young woman who had no idea that most of the hijackers were Saudi Arabian. She voted for Bu$h* because "he'll keep us safe after 9-11." :(

[arcane1]

35. like he kept us safe BEFORE 9/11

:eyes:

people... what can one do with them?

[craychek]

34. Man

What can I say? And I wonder why Bush got re-elected... Something tells me we have more ignorant people in the US than the average country... =P

[symbolman]

36. Gee, what an odd coincidence

The MoveAmericaForward people come out with a bunch of ads stating EXACTLY THAT, with NO links to the WHite House, getting tax free dollars to spread this LIE and now the WSJ somehow makes this claim that the MAF assholes can USE to show their lies are TRUTH..

Just like the NYTimes and Judith Miller planting lies which were later used to support other LIES by the admin..

The show has begun, I want to fight these MAF assholes but no one seems to care.. I think this is REALLY Important right now, to take that group DOWN..

[SomewhereOutThere424]

37. Coincidentally

Almost just as many americans believe the happenings of professional wrestling are real. People blame the media -- I actually blame television as a whole.

[Orangeone]

38. Saddam = Arab

They think all arabs come from the same place...

[arewenotdemo]

51. So true.

We need to view this in the context of the idiots' racism.

And then there is the little Christian/Muslim issue. They're willfully ignorant for "good" reasons after all.

[Gregorian]

39. People still trust what comes across their tv, as news.

And some are just too stubborn to believe otherwise.

edit- Oh, and it doesn't help that what poses as news is actually pro-Bush propaganda. It's no wonder...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

40. Many Americans also use paint thinner as a chaser.

[LynnTheDem]

53. ROTFLMAO!!!

:rofl:

[daleo]

41. A proportion of any population is stupid (usually not too many, though)

It is heartening that the percentage of people who believe these falsehoods is now in the 20's. A certain proportion will never watch the news anyway, and another proportion are true believers that can't be budged by any reality. These numbers indicate those limits are being approached.

[bluestateguy]

42. Those ignorant people should lose their right to vote

I'm serious.

[anotherdrew]

44. I agree too - criminally stupid, willfully ignorant. but no way to enforce

[FiveGoodMen]

46. Precisely

[The Backlash Cometh]

47. I think this was at the heart of my conversation with my Repub friend

last night. They really do believe that in attacking Hussein, we're revenging 9/11.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5704839&mesg_id=5704839

[ihelpu2see]

48. Seriously, I had a "Security Mom" as a patient the other day

and I quipped how I just had bought a really expensive piece of equipment to lower my Income tax burden so that my Tax $$ would not go to GW. And she smirked, seemed embarrassed to admit she voted for him but still defended the fact that and I quote.... "Well we had to go to war because they attacked us!"

I was floored. Here in CT 90% of the people I see have at least 4 years of college and are pretty smart but this was a shock.

So, I politely educated her. I say politely because I did not want to lose a patient. I gave her a quick lesson using GW's last speech where he so plain spoken-ly described how "We wernt in Iraq or Afghanistan on 9-11 but we were still attacked" (paraphrased) I said the quote which she remembered, being the good "follower" that she was then I asked her how many of the hi-jackers were from Iraq or Afghanistan, then I asked her if we had troops and bases in Saudi Arabia on 9-11... Then I told her that 90+% of the Hi-Jackers were from Saudi Arabia..... She turned whiter and whiter as I continued on about the US intel. vs. the rest of the worlds intel. including C. Powell's big show at the UN....

I told her this very quickly and advised her to use the internet to seek multiple news sources like the AFP news wire...

[NVMojo]

54. Dumb shit nation ...sigh ...