As part of its cover story on “what you need to know now,” Newsweek conducted a broad poll on a variety of political and cultural affairs. There were plenty of interesting results, but one section was particularly noteworthy.
Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, as many as four in ten Americans (41 percent) still believe Saddam Hussein’s regime was directly involved in financing, planning or carrying out the terrorist attacks on 9/11, even though no evidence has surfaced to support a connection. A majority of Americans were similarly unable to pick Saudi Arabia in a multiple-choice question about the country where most of the 9/11 hijackers were born. Just 43 percent got it right — and a full 20 percent thought most came from Iraq.
Perhaps most troubling, the number of people who are confused about Iraq’s non-existent role in the 9/11 attacks has gone up in recent years. When Newsweek asked the same question in the fall of 2004, 36% said Saddam Hussein was “directly involved” with the attacks. Nearly three years later, that number is 41%.
Sure, Bush administration officials have been careless with their rhetoric, leading to some confusion. And sure, there were probably some Fox News viewers included in the poll, skewing the numbers.
But that still doesn’t explain a result like this one.
3 Trackbacks To “Widespread confusion“
too many people causing too many problems……………
we’re in a land of confusion……………………
Sure, Bush administration officials have been careless with their rhetoric, leading to some confusion.
Careless with their rhetoric? Try deliberately misleading.
This is mindf*ck on a massive scale and the only way to combat it is to continually reiterate the truth.
Never underestimate the gullibility of the sheeple.
as far as finding saudi arabia on a map that’s the individual’s fault but confusing the source of 9-11 attacks misinformation comes directly from the bushies. how many people think that the attacks came from iran or egypt?
[Deleted. Please respect the siteowner’s policy regarding conspiracy theories]
Yeah, how come for number 7 (To the best of your knowledge, has the U.S. found chemical or biological weapons hidden by Saddam Hussein’s regime since the Iraq war began in 2003?) the correct answer is listed as “No”?
I mean, how can there even BE a correct answer for that question at this time, and why would it be unambiguously No?
Point number one: Jason is a moron.
Point number two: The number of persons who have replaced land lines with cell phones has increased in the past three years, possible accounting of the skewing of the numbers.
Point number three: Bush is a moron, too, but in a different way than Jason.
That confusion may have this administration as it’s source, but who is responsible for consistently disseminating that mis-info and therefore, in my mind anyway, just as responsible for the confusion?? Oh, it’s Der Media…how many polls by newsgroups need to come out about this stuff before those so-called news groups actually try to do anything to reverse the confusion, like doing some real live reporting. The White House Press core let’s these guys get away with an awful lot….wouldn’t want to blow that ACCESS they have, because then the books they are all working on( on the newsgroups dime…), won’t have as good of a chance in the marketplace
Why doesn’t an organization like the Center for American Progress take out a series of TV commercials that present in a clear and concise fashion the basic facts regarding these issues? In 30 seconds or a minute it would certainly be possible to list the origin of the 19 hijackers and state definitively that Iraq was in no way involved. It would get the information out there, and it would take a truly brazen denial of reality for anyone to publicly disagree with them. Good luck getting Fox News to air the spots, but most other stations would pick them up I’m sure.
Um, regardning my comment
pbk @ 5:
The 7 should be a 5 and the text should be (From what you know about the situation, do you think the United States is losing the fight against al-Qaeda or radical Islamic terrorism?) instead of (To the best of your knowledge, has the U.S. found chemical or biological weapons hidden by Saddam Hussein’s regime since the Iraq war began in 2003?). The comment will make much more sense this way.
This isn’t surprising. As a nation, we’re fatter, dumber, and less compassionate than we were twenty five years ago. Rah, rah, NASCAR, bucket-o-gravy-and-Chicken Britney-24/7 has a way of doing that to us. Can’t remember why . . .
Let’s make it really easy: 80% of the U.S. public gets all of their news from television. What else do you need to know?
Confusion? Newsweek just sucks. John Mecheam is a lying idiot.
Breaking News!!! American’s are uninformed about the important issues of the day…Thanks to Faux News and all of the other Info-Tainment outlets, CNN, MSNBC, pretty much any mainstream news agency, including most newspapers are working their best to bring you round the clock Paris news but for some reason won’t run a single story about how we were lied into Iraq…and these assholes will says “it’s not important how we got there, it’s important to decide what to do now.” yeah, well, the only option I can think of is to leave, give the Iraqi people and their government a buttload of money to make up for us breaking their country without a plan to fix it and we can move on to our next Republican abomination.
isn’t it funny how the right attacks the “liberal media” for making shit up but they have no problem with American’s being so ignorant they don’t even know who attacked us when. I guess the correct answer if you want to know what country planned and financed 9/11 you wouldn’t have to look very far past our own borders…even into our own White House.
c-mon people time to get smart…all the trouble in American begins and ends with Americans being more informed…which is why the Repugs don’t what honest debate or even commentary
sheep are lazy and the msm and gop count on it
Connecting Iraq to 9/11 is emotional protection.
So strongly do people want America to be a just and righteous nation that they HAVE to believe Iraq was connected to 9/11. To believe they were lied to, that our nation is involved in a war of choice, is simply too hard to bear.
American soldiers dying simply so George and Dick could play “war prez” is a fact that is really just too hard, so believing 9/11 and Iraq are connected makes in reasonable. It makes this fiasco have a purpose. Alas, it does not.
The worst Iraq gets, the percentage of people who believe in that connection will probably only get larger. When it is over, and the wounds begin to heal, the people who believe Iraq and 9/11 were connected will slip to the single digits.
The constant conflation between Iraq and 9/11, both from Bush and now the rest of the GOP candidates like good ol’ St. Rudy are keeping the false connection in mind, and are easily further propogated by the gushing press people like Guliani keep receiving, making their claims seem more ‘trustworthy’.
Just goes to show you that we have a bunch of people who have no clue about thinking for themselves. They don’t read or investigate anything they hear and if they do they are too stubborn to admit it when they are wrong. Sorta sounds like george bush, doesn’t it?
Turn on American Idol and pass the Cheeto’s. Brain too tired to keep up with important stuff.
P.S. Like the WordPress
The Bush administration and its lap dogs in the so-called mainstream media bear virtually all the responsibility for this incredible situation. However, the Democratic presidential candidates and the national Democratic committee are doing little to correct the situation. Considering the amount of free press coverage that all of the major candidates—Obama, Clinton, and Edwards—get wherever they go, it would help enormously if all of them addressed this situation when speaking about national security, regardless whether they’re speaking to the women’s club in Dogscratch, Idaho, to Chris Matthews, or to the National Press Club in D.C.. And it won’t take one speech or comment, but rather a sustained, planned, and consistently implemented assault on this fundamental factual ignorance. So long as major portions of the country believe that Iraq was involved in 9/11, it will be that much harder to convince voters in 2008 that the GOP has materially harmed our national security and should be held accountable.
I think many people are confused about who is responsible for 9/11. On a recent interview on CSPAN, Lewis Lapham mentioned that he was currently reading Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory by David Ray Griffin http://www.amazon.com/Debunkin.....156656686X
Lapham said the author “raises a number of sharp questions… which I think deserve further questioning and investigation”
I’m thinking IGNORANCE explains a lot…just spend an hour each morning listening to WJ on C-Span if you need that confirmed. MY GOD, there were tons of callers today who actually believe that the right-wing radio hosts who spew their conservative/self-righteous hate crap are NOT influencing listeners because, as they see it, they are saying what THEY already think…DUH! There are none who will be so easily lead as those who have already checked their brains at the door…
debaser71 @ 12:
Sure, Bush administration officials have been careless with their rhetoric,************************************
No, they lied. Don’t put lipstick on the pig, call the liars what they are.
The longer this fiasco drags on (Thank you Democrats), the more people need to believe that the deaths of 3500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, the total loss of America’s status and moral authority, the utter rape of our economy, the debasement of our constitutional rights, and the takeover of our government by a cadre of de-facto dictators who have totally unchecked powers of domestic espionage and complete immunity to any and all laws they choose, was not just for the enrichment and bloodlust of a few oligarchs. There musta been a reason for all of this. THEY attacked us. Who is THEY? Whoever America says. Shut up and go back to worrying about the latest kidnapped white girl.
Depressing, but not surprising.
Lots of Elisabeth Hasselbecks walking around out there, with their heads way up their asses.
A perfect example of why public policy should not be set by public opinion. Just because people have been convinced to believe something is true, does not make it true.
Simply astounding !
I’m going to move to a country where less than 40% are as smart as a paper plate. This is a result of our current culture where intelligence is not valued, where “no child left behind” has resulted in uneducated kids.
Over the weekend I saw a report that said 48% of the citizens of Iceland believe in Newts and Trolls.
You don’t need actual evidence. If the sponge minions see it on tv that’s enough for them. If you polled the same people they’d probably tell you they are actively searching for the island where the “lost” characters are stranded.
The problem is not the media or the Bush Administration (not directly anyway). The problem is that Americans are into faith based reasoning. Just believe something to be true, facts or not needed. It’s so much simpler than digging up the facts, and so much more satisfying since you never have to accept unpleasant truths.
Another fact perhaps not receiving sufficient attention: Coalition troops in Afghanistan have killed more civilians than the Taliban.
Of those who believe that Iraq is/was responsible for 9/11, how many of those people do you think still have a favorable view of Bush?
I’m guessing that these are the same people.
“careless with their rhetoric”
I disagree. I think they have been very careful with their rhetoric.
This is the same Bush administration that propagated the “I voted for it before I voted against it” lie on Kerry.
They knew what that meant. They knew there were separate bills, but they pretended that Kerry was “flip-flopping”.
This administration isn’t “careless” with their words - that’s the only thing they ARE careful about.
The number of people who are confused about Iraq’s role in 911 has gone up in proportion to the number of people watching Faux News. In fact, the number of people confused about reality itself has gone up…
I wish it were just, 9/11, but it is not, as this study makes clear:
If 48% of the population rejects the overwhelming scientific evidence for evolution, why is it so surprising that 41% reject evidence that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Acknowledging the former would require a re-examination of faith in god, the latter would require a re-examination of the notion of American goodness and exceptionalism.
Close to half the country is living in a state of denial and, with war in Iran looming, that is a dangerous state indeed.
What’s even stupider is that all these right wing Republicans that WORSHIP Reagan, conveniently forget that Reagan was respondible for the 1986 Immigration bill, which was a failure, granting AMNESTY, and never securing the border.
Maybe Reagan wasn’t so great.
Jason @ 4:
Jesus Christ on a cracker. First of all, there was a bit more going on besides fire: (pic). Second of all, those cute pictures the 9/11 nuts show you of the “limited fires” are on the wrong side of the building. The fires were not small and localized and restricted to the 7th and 12th floors (pic). That’s smoke pouring out of the building, not dust from the collapsing twin towers, as you can see from this unobstructed view (pic). Furthermore, the building did not neatly fall into its own footprint, the wreckage fell to a side as one might expect (pic). Here is a video of smoke clearly pouring out of WTC7.
But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the firemen:
They told us to get out of there because they were worried about 7 World Trade Center, which is right behind it, coming down. We were up on the upper floors of the Verizon building looking at it. You could just see the whole bottom corner of the building was gone. We could look right out over to where the Trade Centers were because we were that high up. Looking over the smaller buildings. I just remember it was tremendous, tremendous fires going on. Finally they pulled us out. They said all right, get out of that building because that 7, they were really worried about. They pulled us out of there and then they regrouped everybody on Vesey Street, between the water and West Street. They put everybody back in there. Finally it did come down. From there - this is much later on in the day, because every day we were so worried about that building we didn’t really want to get people close. They were trying to limit the amount of people that were in there. Finally it did come down.
-Richard Banaciski
The most important operational decision to be made that afternoon was the collapse had damaged 7 World Trade Center, which is about a 50 story building, at Vesey between West Broadway and Washington Street. It had very heavy fire on many floors and I ordered the evacuation of an area sufficient around to protect our members, so we had to give up some rescue operations that were going on at the time and back the people away far enough so that if 7 World Trade did collapse, we [wouldn’t] lose any more people. We continued to operate on what we could from that distance and approximately an hour and a half after that order was [given], at 5:30 in the afternoon, World Trade Center collapsed completely.
-Daniel Nigro
Early on, there was concern that 7 World Trade Center might have been both impacted by the collapsing tower and had several fires in it and there was a concern that it might collapse. So we instructed that a collapse area be set up and maintained so that when the expected collapse of 7 happened, we wouldn’t have people working in it. There was considerable discussion with Con Ed regarding the substation in that building and the feeders and the oil coolants and so on. And their concern was of the type of fire we might have when it collapsed.
-Frank Cruthers
Then we found out, I guess around 3:00 [o’clock], that they thought 7 was going to collapse. So, of course, [we’ve] got guys all in this pile over here and the main concern was get everybody out, and I guess it took us over an hour and a half, two hours to get everybody out of there. Oh, yes. We had Maydays like crazy…. The heat must have been tremendous. There was so much f*cking fire there. This whole pile was burning like crazy. Just the heat and the smoke from all the other buildings on fire, you [couldn’t] see anything. So it took us a while and we ended up backing everybody out, and [that’s] when 7 collapsed…. Basically, we fell back for 7 to collapse, and then we waited a while and it got a lot more organized, I would guess.
-William Ryan
A little north of Vesey I said, we’ll go down, let’s see what’s going on. A couple of the other officers and I were going to see what was going on. We were told to go to Greenwich and Vesey and see what’s going on. So we go there and on the north and east side of 7 it didn’t look like there was any damage at all, but then you looked on the south side of 7 there had to be a hole 20 stories tall in the building, with fire on several floors. Debris was falling down on the building and it didn’t look good.
…
So we gathered up rollups and most of us had masks at that time. We headed toward 7. And just around we were about a hundred yards away and Butch Brandies came running up. He said forget it, nobody’s going into 7, there’s creaking, there are noises coming out of there, so we just stopped. And probably about 10 minutes after that, Visconti, he was on West Street, and I guess he had another report of further damage either in some basements and things like that, so Visconti said nobody goes into 7, so that was the final thing and that was abandoned.
-Chris Boyle
Yeah. There was enough there and we were marking off. There were a lot of damaged apparatus there that were covered. We tried to get searches in those areas. By now, this is going on into the afternoon, and we were concerned about additional collapse, not only of the Marriott, because there was a good portion of the Marriott still standing, but also we were pretty sure that 7 World Trade Center would collapse. Early on, we saw a bulge in the southwest corner between floors 10 and 13, and we had put a transit on that and we were pretty sure she was going to collapse. You actually could see there was a visible bulge, it ran up about three floors. It came down about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, but by about 2 o’clock in the afternoon we realized this thing was going to collapse.
…
No, not right away, and that’s probably why it stood for so long because it took a while for that fire to develop. It was a heavy body of fire in there and then we didn’t make any attempt to fight it. That was just one of those wars we were just going to lose. We were concerned about the collapse of a 47-story building there. We were worried about additional collapse there of what was remaining standing of the towers and the Marriott, so we started pulling the people back after a couple of hours of surface removal and searches along the surface of the debris. We started to pull guys back because we were concerned for their safety.
-Peter Hayden
By the way, did you know that there’s never been a building in history taller than 26 stories that was demolished via implosion. Furthermore, controlled implosions require serious gutting of the building’s infrastructure and take a large crew several weeks to do, even for buildings much smaller than WTC7. Here’s an account of the aforementioned largest building ever imploded:
Mark Loizeaux, President of CDI, called Hudson’s the greatest dynamic structural control challenge the company had ever faced. CDI had to sever the steel in the columns and create a delay system which could simultaneously control the failure of the building’s 12 different structural configurations, while trying to keep the hundreds of thousands of tons of debris within the 420 ft by 220 ft footprint of the structure. CDI needed structural data to complete its design. Under CDI direction, Homrich/NASDI’s 21 man crew needed three months to investigate the complex and four months to complete preparations for CDI’s implosion design. During that period, the lower two basements of the structure were filled with engineered fill and the perimeter basement walls bermed to 1st basement level with soil to support perimeter walls which would surely have failed under soil and hydrostatic loads once the horizontal support of the Hudson’s internal structure was removed by the implosion.
Double column rows installed in the structure between vertical construction phases, internal brick shear walls, x-bracing, 70 elevators and 10 stairwells created an extremely stiff frame. Columns weighing over 500 lb/ft, having up to 7.25 inch thick laminated steel flanges and 6 inch thick webs, defied commercially available shaped charge technology. CDI analyzed each column, determined the actual load it carried and then used cutting torches to scarf-off steel plates in order to use smaller shaped charges to cut the remaining steel. CDI wanted to keep the charges as small as possible to reduce air over pressure that could break windows in adjacent properties.
CDI’s 12 person loading crew took twenty four days to place 4,118 separate charges in 1,100 locations on columns on nine levels of the complex. Over 36,000 ft of detonating cord and 4,512 non-electric delay elements were installed in CDI’s implosion initiation system, some to create the 36 primary implosion sequence and another 216 micro-delays to keep down the detonation overpressure from the 2,728 lb of explosives which would be detonated during the demolition.
You don’t just place a few little thermite packages on a couple support beams and press a button as you cackle maniacally.
[Deleted. 9/11conspiracy stuff here, and you know it-Sitemonitor]
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Hank @ 32:
With all due respect, Hank, your own reasoning is inconsistent. The Bush administration is responsible for propagating the myth that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks, tactically eschewing the reality of the Saudi connection altogether. You are correct in assuming that Americans are blindly zealous, but the Bush administration exploited that obvious truth in a concerted effort to mislead this country. And apparently it’s worked out pretty well.