Poll: Many Americans believe WMD has been found

[bigpoppanils]

Many Americans Unaware WMD Have Not Been Found

41% said they believed that the US has found such weapons.

06/09/03: (PIPA) A striking finding in the new Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) Knowledge Networks poll is that many Americans are unaware that weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq. While 59% of those polled correctly said the US has not found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, 41% said they believed that the US has found such weapons (34%) or were unsure (7%).

Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments: "For some Americans, their desire to support the war may be leading them to screen out information that weapons of mass destruction have not been found. Given the intensive news coverage and high levels of public attention to the topic, this level of misinformation suggests that some Americans may be avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance."

"To some extent this misperception can be attributed to repeated headlines that there has been a promising lead in the effort to find evidence of such weapons' headlines that are not counterbalanced by prominent reporting that these leads have not been fruitful. But there is also reason to believe that this misperception may be unconsciously motivated, as the mistaken belief is substantially greater among those who favored the war."

Among those who approved of the decision to go to war and were not just supporting the president (53% of the sample), a majority of 52% said the US has found weapons of mass destruction (48%) or did not know (4%).

Among Republicans who said they follow international affairs very closely -- and thus may also be more exposed to headlines reporting promising leads -- an even larger percentage -- 55% --said weapons have been found, with just 45% saying they have not.

Another widespread misperception is that Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons in the war. Twenty-two percent held this misperception, with 9% being unsure, while 69% correctly said that Iraq had not used such weapons. However, unlike the question of whether weapons have been found, there is no greater tendency to hold this belief among those who support the war, or are Republicans who follow international affairs closely, than there is in the general population.

The desire to reduce cognitive dissonance may also be skewing some Americans' memory of the government's rationale for going to war. Asked, "Thinking back to when the US government was making the case for going to war with Iraq, according to the government, what was the most important reason for going to war with Iraq?" 60% said "the evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," and 19% said "the evidence that Iraq was working with the terrorist group al'Qaeda." But 20% said the most important reason was "the fact that Saddam Hussein was an oppressive dictator." Asked for the second most important reason, another 32% chose "the fact that Saddam Hussein was an oppressive dictator," while weapons of mass destruction were chosen by 24% and links to al'Qaeda by 42%.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3707.htm

[bigpoppanils]

i'm not shocked by this. Americans generally ignore international affairs. Hell, most Americans can't locate Mexico on a map.

[sassa]

.......... some can't even find the united states.

[normalnoises]

Some can't even find their own home town on a map and even that is saddening.

And to all the sheep in here:

IF SADDAM HAD WMDs HE WOULD HAVE USED THEM!!

[mr mahs]

Originally posted by normalnoises

Some can't even find their own home town on a map and even that is saddening.

And to all the sheep in here:

IF SADDAM HAD WMDs HE WOULD HAVE USED THEM!!

Answer me this then.

-3k chemical suits

- Unlimited amounts of antropiene, a nerve gas antidote.

-Bio chem labs that only purpose is to make bio weapons.

IF HE DIDN'T HAVE THEM THEN WHY NOT PROVE IT TO THE WORLD AND RETAIN HIS POWER??????

Did you ever stop to think that the first few hours of the war crippled his capabilities of delivering these weapons?? After all we are the strongest military in the world aren't we?

[mr mahs]

Originally posted by bigpoppanils

i'm not shocked by this. Americans generally ignore international affairs. Hell, most Americans can't locate Mexico on a map.

No it's the people who doubt that he had these weapons want us to bring them to a WalMart full of Bio weapons. Where as the people who were behind the country and our president from the get go are convinced by other evidence left wingers deem irrelevent. How a tractor trailer painted in army fatigues isn't proof enough I don't know what will be.

[kramadas]

Originally posted by mr mahs

No it's the people who doubt that he had these weapons want us to bring them to a WalMart full of Bio weapons. Where as the people who were behind the country and our president from the get go are convinced by other evidence left wingers deem irrelevent. How a tractor trailer painted in army fatigues isn't proof enough I don't know what will be.

So just two tractor trailers made all those thousands and thousands of liters of bio and chem weapons that was supposed to have posed this incredible threat to the continental US?

[mr mahs]

Originally posted by raver_mania

So just two tractor trailers made all those thousands and thousands of liters of bio and chem weapons that was supposed to have posed this incredible threat to the continental US?

Isn't it enough to prove he was making weapons?? He had them in 98 before the inspectors were kicked out. Maybe the trailers were used from 98 on to manufacture more.

[igloo]

Originally posted by raver_mania

So just two tractor trailers made all those thousands and thousands of liters of bio and chem weapons that was supposed to have posed this incredible threat to the continental US?

No, but it is evidence of a WMD program, and the lengths Saddam went to conceal it....

But even if our estimates were off, and that Iraq did not have thousands of liters of Sarin, VX, and mustard gas, and other bio-weapons, but instead only a couple hundred liters-----is that any less of a threat?.....or the fact that he had a concealed WMD program...

Let's face facts...we can't even find him and his sons, who the entire country would like to kill....finding these WMD and the program is going to be difficult.....but I do agree this was an intelligence failure--not the conclusion that he had WMD, but in securing and pinpointing these weapons, scientists (if not killed), and overall program

[cintron]

just to put it in perspective...

it doesn't matter if Saddam has 1000 liters of Sarin or only 10 liters.

you need only ONE TEASPOON's worth in a confined area to kill hundreds of people. It is incredibly toxic and dangerous.

If anybody remembers the Tokyo subway attack - that was Sarin at work. 25 killed and over 200 injured and hospitalized. Sarin is a nerve agent, so if it gets in your system, it is very easy to become paralyzed and remain that way. The nervous system isn't a quick healer like tissue is.

So even if Saddam had about five coke bottles full of Sarin sitting in his closet, you gotta realize...

that's enough to kill alll of New York City if it's placed well enough.

just five soda bottles can kill ALL of new york city.

so tell me - now is it such a big deal that we've only found two trucks? each truck could make a couple hundred liters of nerve agents and bio weaponry. It only takes a liter or so to fill the tip of a warhead. The agents vaporize with explosives that distribute but do not destroy the chemicals. So basically, you could set off a bomb in downtown manhattan and people would think it's just a bomb. But what they don't know is that with that bomb, a chemical agent was also distributed intact over a wide area.

if you managed to get a single liter of Sarin into downtown manhattan, you could kill everything south of Houston street.