Commentary ~ July 04, 2003: A
poll released yesterday
reveals that a majority of Americans now know the Bush administration
exaggerated the threat
of lethal
weapons
in Iraq to justify the war. Just 32% said they thought the government
was “being fully truthful.” Sixty-three percent said
that Congress should “investigate
the intelligence agencies’ performance in providing intelligence
on whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.”
In a further demonstration of how so many Americans have been
mislead by the media, and their
own Administration, 52% believe, incorrectly, that the US has “found
clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely
with the
Al Qaeda terrorist organization,” according to
the survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at
the University of Maryland.
Also, according to the poll, 23% believe, incorrectly, that the
US has “found
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction”—down from 34% in
May.
In a strong show of support for the United Nations, 64% of Americans
want to see the UN take a leadership role
in Iraq. Those wanting the US to take the lead dropped
to just 31%, from 47% in April. Similarly, those saying the UN
should direct economic reconstruction in Iraq are now a very strong
69%—up from 57% in April. Those
saying the US should do so is down to 27% from 40% in April.
As a general principle, 75% of Americans endorse the idea that
the US should be willing to intervene when a government is committing
large-scale
violations of human rights, even when US security interests are
not threatened,
but only 23% supports doing so without broad international approval
-- which the invasion of Iraq did not have (most countries, except
for Britain, Australia and those on the U.S. payroll, were against
invading Iraq).
Another poll, from Gallup-USA
Today poll, which was also released yesterday, reveals that Americans
are starting to get a sense of what is really going on in Iraq.
According to that survey, only 56% said the situation in Iraq
was "worth
going to war over," while
42% disagreed. In mid-April
the margin was 73%-23%.
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