PROPAGANDA WATCH

twincities.com: "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" FOR BUSH ON IRAQ

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."